Altair
by StillWatersAreDeep
Summary: At Hogwarts all 7th year students are allowed to sign up for new elective classes, called Altair's subjects by the students. What will happen when Draco and Harry become partners? HP/DM slash and fluff
1. Prologue  the Altair celebration

**Disclaimer (for the whole story): **This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**Summary:** At Hogwarts all 7th year students are allowed to sign up for new elective classes, called Altair's subjects. What will happen when Draco and Harry become partners? HP/DM slash

**Pairings: **HP/DM, other side pairings

**Rating:** NC-17

**Warnings:** it is rated M for a reason so expect slash in later chapters

**guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts_

**Betas:** jointheclub, Makoto Sagara

update of rebeta-ed version: 16th July

**AN: **Thank you for giving this story a chance. I hope that you will enjoy the ride.

Since English is not my native tongue you are free to PM me if you come across spelling and grammar errors, I will correct them as soon as possible. Also be warned that even if I try to use British spelling it is likely that I will still mix in some words spelled in American English. And I tend to write rather long sentences. So be warned.

Reviews are always welcomed ^_^ But let's start with the story...

**-~-~- Altair -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**Altair**

**#**"the brightest star in the constellation Aquila and the twelfth brightest star in the night sky. In astrology, the star Altair was ill-omened, portending danger from reptiles**" (Wikipedia)**

# here: In honour of Professor Altair Black who initiated the offering of taking different kinds of sexual magic at Hogwarts, the ceremony where the Hogwarts students are made aware of this choice was named "Altair". It sounds similar to the verb "Alter"(Changing) which suits the event because it has the possibility to alter your life.

**-~-~- prologue – the Altair celebration -~-~-**

It is a tradition in Hogwarts that on the night of the Leaving Feast the current sixth-year students are invited by the seventh-year students to come up to their dorms for a special event. This event is rumoured to be as life altering as the Sorting Ceremony in first year. Its name, **Altair**, was named after Professor Altair Black who introduced this event some hundred years ago.

And so, it happened that on the morning of the day of the Leaving Feast when the owls came with the morning mail, Hermione was not the only one of the Golden Trio to receive an owl. After she had paid the owl for the _Prophet,_ she looked over at the two boys, sitting across from her at the Gryffindor table, whose owls, Hedwig and Pig, had delivered a package to each of their owners.

"Who would send us a package when we are going home tomorrow anyway?" Ron asked.

"It must be from the twins. They said something about wanting to send the two of you some fashionable clothes for the Altair tonight," Ginny answered her brother's question from across the table, hoping that the twins also went through with the prank on Ron mentioned in the same letter.

When Ron opened his package, it seemed that they'd held their word because atop of a maroon button-up shirt lay a card from the twins saying:

~**Since people always say that mothers know what it best for their kids, we decided to go with Mum's colour scheme for your outfit.**

**Have fun tonight!**

**Fred and George, your best brothers ever!~**

"Argh," Ron groaned. "Why did they have to send me such an awful colour?"

Ginny only giggled silently.

"Come on, Ron, it could be a lot worse. Remember the robe from the Yule ball? At least the shirt isn't from the last century. And I am sure that underneath the shirt there is a pair of better looking jeans for you," Harry tried to reassure Ron while he went through his own package from the twins that contained a pair of black skinny jeans, a simple black t-shirt and a pale violet sleeveless silk shirt.

When Ron looked over, he groaned even more, complaining about the unfairness of it all, especially since Harry's card from the twins read:

**~What best brothers ever would we be if we let our honorary brother show up at such a life altering event as the Altair with unfashionable clothes? **

**Have fun, make us proud and make sure to not break too many hearts tonight ;)**

**George and Fred ~**

"Stop complaining, Ron! Be happy that they didn't send you one of the eye-blinding shirts they wear," Hermione reprimanded.

Ron only hmmed, but at least he stopped ranting in favour of eating some more sausages and scrambled eggs. After all of them were finished with breakfast Ginny finally showed Ron some mercy and told him to move his wand in a circular motion over his new shirt while saying "_The twins are the best brothers ever!"._

"Why should I do such a thing, Ginny?"

"Simply do it, Ron."

And when he still did not comply after some moments, Hermione further encouraged him with a, "Come on. It won't hurt you to do as Ginny said". Eventually, he finally gave in while muttering some more complaints under his breath. After Ron said the word _"ever", _to his surprise the shirt's colour changed from maroon to a dark green which would go well with his red hair.

"Why can't they stop pulling those pranks on their siblings? And why did it have to turn into Slytherin green?" Ron further complained, obviously still not satisfied with the colour of his shirt.

"And why can you not stop complaining for once? The two of them own a joke shop so why shouldn't they play a prank or two?" Ginny answered back, annoyed by his constant complains.

"Says the one who was in on it! And Hermione had to know about it too, or why else would she encourage me to do as Ginny said?" With that said, Ron got up and left the Great Hall together with his clothing package, annoyed that the girls approved of the twins' prank and also because after the shirt changed colour it had to turn Slytherin green of all things.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Luckily for Harry, the row Hermione and Ron had at breakfast was over by dinnertime. It could have had something to do with Hermione having commented to Ginny that she thought Ron looks rather handsome in green, which Ron overheard.

So with this problem solved, the sixth-year Gryffindors were getting ready for the Altair that would start in half an hour.

"Come on, guys, I don't want to be scolded by Hermione for being late," Ron announced to his roommates.

"More like wanting to impress her with the new shirt of yours because she said earlier that green looks sexy on you," Dean replied. "Maybe you better leave without us. I'm sure when Hermione sees Harry, she will forget all about you and will go for Harry over here instead. The dark colours really do suit him. And what girl doesn't appreciate looking at a fit Quidditch player. If Harry didn't have to wear his glasses, you wouldn't have a chance at all."

"Too bad that the twins also included a pair of Muggle contact lenses in the package. But do not worry, Ron. Hermione is so much in love with you, she won't even spare Harry a glance. The rest of the female population, on the other hand ..." Seamus added after he saw Harry putting in said contacts.

"You really are great friends," Ron said sarcastically to his two dorm mates.

"But seriously, guys, I don't think that I look that great," Harry said, having low self-esteem regarding his looks. It wasn't too surprising taking into account that all his life, school-robes aside, he had to wear Dudley's old and far too big hand me downs. Add in being called freak all the time he was in Surrey to the mix, it was no wonder that Harry did not believe he was a rather good looking young man.

"You really do look good in these clothes, Harry. Especially since they fit for a change, and the violet colour of your shirt gives you a mystic aura while enchanting the vibrant green colour of your eyes at the same time," Neville tried to reassure his friend.

Harry got a light blush from those words and mumbled, "If you say so," under his breath, not fully believing his friends' words.

"Does anyone know how we are getting to the place where the Altair is held? I have never seen any of the previous sixth-years leaving the dorms after they went up the stairs to meet with the seventh-years," Neville asked his roommates.

"I am not sure, but Hermione has a theory. She thinks that it is possible that the Headmaster takes down the Anti-Apparition-wards in their dorm so that they can Side-Along-Apparate us to the location," Harry answered while taking another look at the mirror and trying to see what Neville, Seamus and Dean found so handsome about him but not finding anything.

"Come on, you lot. It is time to go," Ron called from the dorm entrance, still eager to leave so that he could impress his Hermione.

And so, the five boys went up the staircase to go to the seventh-year boys' dorm entrance from where they would be led by the seventh-year prefect to the place where the Altair was going to be held tonight.

The current seventh-year prefect was waiting for them at the entrance of his dorm and greeted them with a, "Welcome to the Altair," before opening the door to the dorm and letting them enter the room before him.

To their surprise, instead of entering another ordinary dorm, they ended up in a common room of sorts. Instead of the four-posters and the Gryffindor colour scheme, they saw couches, loveseats and armchairs in black and browns inside a big circular room which in general was decorated in earth colours.

"Nice dorm," Seamus commented.

Looking around Harry saw a big fireplace around which the majority of the sofas and loveseats were located. Across from the fireplace, on the other side of the room, there was a big staircase leading to a balcony of sorts which went around three-quarters of the room, granting access to the rooms upstairs. Tables and other seating accommodation were scattered around the rest of the room.

Behind the staircase was a door with the Hogwarts symbol on it, and to the right and left of the door were four other doors, each of them having the symbol of one of the Hogwarts Houses on it. Harry was currently standing with Ron to the left of the staircase before the door showing the Gryffindor lion.

Looking around, Harry not only saw Hermione standing with the other girls from Gryffindor near a table to the left of the fireplace but also sixth- and seventh-year students from all the other Hogwarts Houses. "Look, Ron, Hermione is standing over there."

"Hey, Hermione, it seems like your theory of Apparating in here was wrong, or did you not enter through the dormitory door like us?" Harry greeted his best friend.

"I can't be right all the times, can I?" Hermione answered grudgingly. "But this is by far more interesting than simply Apparating. It must be very advanced space-travel-magic, even more complex than the enchantment on the ceiling in the Great Hall. I am surprised that it wasn't mentioned in _'Hogwarts: A History'._"

"If someone would know this, it would be you, Hermione," Ron commented while laying an arm around Hermione's waist and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "By the way, you look good in your new summer dress."

"You look rather handsome yourself, the both of you do," Hermione answered him while leaning back against Ron's chest. "The twins really did a good job picking those clothes. Who would have thought that contacts and tighter clothes would make such a huge difference in Harry's appearance? You better try to avoid Cho tonight if you don't want to have her clinging to you all night. Or better yet, avoid the whole female population to be on the safe side."

Not far away from Hermione, Draco Malfoy was lounging in one of the couches near the fireplace, listening in on the conversation between the friends. Hearing Granger praising Potter's appearance, he looked up from his position on the couch and looked over to the trio. _Granger isn't exaggerating. Potter really does look hot tonight. Those fitting clothes do suit his lean figure rather well. Let's hope that he will continue wearing clothes that fit his body instead of the rags he usually wears. Who would have thought that without his glasses his green eyes seem even brighter? Or is this because of the pale violet colour of his sleeveless shirt? _

"You're not the first one today to tell him that. The other guys in our dorm have already said something like that, but Harry here didn't want to believe them earlier. But when you say it, he has to finally believe that it is the truth, don't you, Harry?" Ron asked trying to increase his friend's self-esteem.

"Yeah," Harry answered shyly while messing up his hair with his left hand.

At 8 pm sharp, the middle door with the Hogwarts crest opened and Headmaster Dumbledore entered the room together with the four Heads of House.

"Welcome to the seventh-year dorm, my dears," Dumbledore greeted the students. "I am sure that most of our sixth-year students are surprised to have ended up in a common room instead of the expected usual dorms. The reason for this is quite simple, since all of you will be seventeen and with that of age next term, you will be able to take up new elective subjects, the Altair electives, which require special living arrangements without the boundaries of the House System. That is why the rooms upstairs were created together with the Altair common room here so that students of all Houses can live together. Professor Snape will now further explain to you what those wonderful new classes are about." Dumbledore took a seat on an armchair and began eating some lemon drops.

"Since you all technically will be adults next school year, you will be free to choose new, more sensitive subjects which underage pupils aren't allowed to take because the magic involved requires intercourse of one kind or another. That is why they are summarised as sexual magic." With this some faces turned red. Snape only smirked evilly and went on.

"The students who choose to participate in those classes will be paired into groups of two. Your partner will be chosen by compatibility of magic, body and classes, regardless of gender or House affiliation. So, be prepared to be partnered with someone from the same sex and an opposite House, since you won't be able to change your partner once they are assigned. You will share a room with your partner so that you will have a private place to practice the sexual magic you choose to take up. The rooms are up the stairs and consist of two separate rooms and a hallway. For those who decided to practice sexual magic one of the rooms will change into something appropriative for your chosen subject while the other room will turn into a regular sleeping quarter with some desks for schoolwork. Furthermore, the students who don't choose any sexual magic classes will also be paired according to their classes to make sure that no one knows who took up sexual magic lessons. The regular students will have a regular room each."

After Professor Snape had finished, Dumbledore stood up with a twinkle in his blue eyes. "Thank you for the short explanation, Severus. Further information about those classes will be owled to you during the holidays, or as soon as you turn seventeen. Also, there is a spell in place which makes sure that only people over sixteen are able to speak about this event to assure that underage children don't know of this rather sensitive topic before they can develop a necessary respect for this part of magic. But, for now, let us enjoy the Altair."

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**AN_2:** Okay, this was the prologue. For those who are worried because Harry and Draco didn't make much of an appearance, it will change in the future chapters.


	2. Chapter 1 the Altair electives

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, _**_~letters and other written stuff~_**

**rating:** M for sexual themes, language and slash in later chapters

**Betas:** jointheclub and Makoto Sagara

update of beta-ed version: 26th July

**AN: **Thank you all for the reviews, alerts and favourites ^_^ I hope that I will not disappoint you.

For those of you who haven't taken a look at my still rather bare profile I most likely will update this story once a month. But since the prologue didn't give you a very defined idea about the new electives I decided to update this chapter early.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- chapter 1 – the Altair electives -~-~-**

Even if Voldemort was finally dead for good, the Dursleys were still his legal guardians, and Dumbledore thought it would not harm him if he stayed with the Dursleys until his birthday to not only renew the blood protection but also to be safe from the Wizarding press. That was why on the 31st of July, Harry's birthday and also the last day he would be living with the Dursleys, by habit Harry was still awake shortly after midnight when he received a larger than normal letter from a Hogwarts owl. Relieving the owl of its burden, he offered it some water from Hedwig's bowl and an owl treat before letting it out of his opened window.

His friends had already told him that they would not owl him anything for his birthday this year because he would see them later today at the Burrow. Mrs. Weasley had a plan to throw him a birthday part there and he would stay there till the start of the new term.

Considering that it was too early for the book list, the letter had to be about the Altair electives, especially since Dumbledore said that it would arrive at one's birthday if you were not already of age at the time of the Altair. Hermione and Ron, both already being of age, had received their letters during the first week of the vacation.

Hermione, being who she was, already had started to research this subject, talking her parents into taking a "_short"_ side-trip from King's Cross to Flourish and Blotts before going home so that she could read up on the subject.

It seemed like Professor Altair Black, who had started the whole Altair, had been a very powerful wizard, because Hermione's research revealed that he was the one who both created and casted the spell which ensured that no one under seventeen could be told about the sexual branch of magic.

This had Hermione wondering how the teachers would be able to tell students, like Harry and Neville, who only would turn seventeen during the holidays about the Altair electives in the upcoming year if the spell should prevent them from doing so. It turned out that the spell not only lost its effect when a witch or wizard turned seventeen but also if he or she entered the Altair common room.

To Ron's utter dismay and Hermione's delight, that piece of information she found in _"Hogwarts: A History – adult version",_ which is only sold to people over sixteen and it was further charmed so that only of age wizards and witches could read it. Besides other small additional information in the regular chapters, it had dedicated a whole chapter to the Altair.

If one asked Ron, Hermione already knew the whole 56 pages of this chapter by heart on the first day she had gotten her new thicker copy of _"Hogwarts: A History"_ and could not stop citing from it. If one further asked him who he blamed for this, he would answer "Dumbledore", because he told Hermione about the adult edition after overhearing her saying that she could not believe that the Altair was not mentioned in her edition of _"Hogwarts: A History"_ during the Altair celebration.

So with Hermione being able to talk with Harry about sexual magic, she had included some general information about this branch of magic in her letters to him, and what he read so far about the subject had already awoken his interest to learn more about it.

It seemed that, in general, sexual magic had the ability to enhance other branches of magic, like strengthening wards or making potions more potent and longer lasting. It even created new possibilities, which would not normally be possible without the magical boost from the sexual magic. For example, it enabled one to create potions which would be impossible to brew without the help of sexual magic.

Both Hermione and Harry had taken a special interest in the branch of Sexual Potions because most mind illnesses can only be effectively cured with the aid of those specially brewed potions.

The currently most desired sexual potion was the **Shërim Mendjen***, a potion invented by an Albanian Potions Master in the late sixteenth century, which if correctly brewed, was able to heal even the most severe after-effects of the Cruciatus Curse. It would not only help to relieve the many Cruciatus victims of the wars against Voldemort, the second one having turned out to be surprisingly short, from the mild nerve damages and accompanying spasms, but it could even bring Neville's parents back to their previous mental health.

The main problem with this potion was that it was rather hard to brew because it apparently not only required rare Basilisk skin, but the pair brewing this potion by way of sexual brewing not only needed a lot of self-control but also had to share a powerful bond and must be highly compatible.

The last pair to successfully brew the Shërim Mendjendied about eighty years ago, and modern Sexual Potions Masters seemed to lack the aforementioned high compatibility and/or powerful bond. So, the victims of the Cruciatus were still waiting to be finally healed since the normal potions could only reduce the effects not get rid of them.

Maybe it was his saving-people-thing, maybe he simply blamed himself for not having vanquished Voldemort sooner, or maybe he was simply curious, but Harry really wanted to try to brew the Shërim Mendjen. It wasn't like he didn't have free access to a lot of Basilisk skin at Hogwarts.

And that was why Harry decided that if Hogwarts should offer Sexual Potions classes that he would apply for them, and maybe he might even take other classes if they sounded interesting enough.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

_Let's find out if Hogwarts offers Sexual Potions or not as one of their Altair electives._

With that thought, Harry sat down on his bed and opened the envelope with the Hogwarts seal. Besides a letter from the Deputy Headmistress, there was also a small brochure, as well as an answering form inside the envelope. Laying the brochure aside for now, Harry read the letter from McGonagall.

**~Dear Mr. Potter,**

**As you know from the Altair at the end of the last school year, in the upcoming year you will be allowed to take new classes, known as the Altair electives, only available to our of age students because of the sexual nature of those subjects. **

**If you want to partake in any of those courses then please mark it on the included form and sent it back by the 8th of August.**

**Please note that signing up for a class does not guarantee that you will be able to take this subject, since a partner is required for many of the classes. The partners will be assigned by their choices of subjects and by their compatibility in magic and of body. So, even if two people sign up for the same courses, they may not be compatible, leading to both of them not being able to take up their chosen subjects.~**

_The compatibility of magic is logical because during some of the sexual magic practices the casters' magic joins. But, what the compatibility of body means, I don't know. I will have to ask Hermione about it when I see her later today._

**~Furthermore, you will not be able to change your partner, who may be male or female, regardless of your own gender. Please remember this when you choose to sign up for any of the offered Altair electives.~**

_Considering how my last two relationships with girls turned out, I really would prefer a male partner for this, especially since it would heighten the chance to successfully brew the Shërim Mendjen. But as long as it isn't Hermione, Ron or even worst, Crabbe or Goyle, I don't really care whom I will be partnered with or what gender my partner will be._

**~Should you be worried about the discretion of this sensitive topic, be assured that there are spells placed on the classrooms, which ensure that neither the professors nor the students are able to remember outside of the classroom who takes part in any of the lessons.~**

_Good to know that the press won't be able to find out that I hopefully will be taking sexual magic lessons. They would have I field day with this information._

**~A detailed description of the offered Altair electives can be found in the included brochure. Rough descriptions of the necessary equipment, as well as the requirements for each course, are also included in the brochure.**

**If you choose to sign up for any of the subjects, you will receive a letter with the courses you will be able to take on the 19th of August. Please wait until then to acquire the course materials, because it will not be certain before then if you will be able to take your chosen classes.**

**Regards,**

**M. McGonagall**

**Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts~**

_Nothing important which I already didn't know,_ McGonagall _using the word sexual aside. _With this thought, Harry laid the letter aside to pick up the brochure.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

_Now, let's find out what branches of sexual magic Hogwarts is offering as their Altair electives. _

Getting into a comfortable position, Harry began reading the brochure.

**~*Altair electives for students in their seventh-year***

**Basic Trance-sexual magic:**** This course will teach you the basis for all the other branches of sexual magic. It will teach the practitioners the necessary self-control ****required to perform sexual magic of any kind, as well as basic knowledge about different positions, the use of additional equipment, bond forming, and safety-precautions.**

**Anyone who wants to take up any of the following other classes must take this course, but it can also be taken without signing up for any of the other subjects. The required compatibility of the partners is also the lowest for this subject.**

***scope: 3 lessons + 1 assignment per week **

**_*requirements: _suitable partner**

**_*equipment: _course book, basic additional equipment ~**

_I wonder what the basic additional equipment includes. Hermione's letters led me to assume that it most likely will include some sex toys like cock rings, because they will help with controlling stuff like the male orgasms. I will definitely sign up for this class. It can't hurt to at least know the basics, even if I won't be able to take the other specialized classes because of the lack of compatible partners in my year._

**~Sexual Divination:**** This art amplifies Divination trough Trance-sexual magic. It allows you to open your Inner Eye even further and predict the future on a completely new level.**

***scope: 1 lesson + 1 practical/written assignment per week **

**_*requirements: _at least Acceptable in Divination OWLs, suitable partner, taking Trance-sexual magic**

**_*equipment: _course book, standard Divination equipment for OWLs-level Divination, herbs which cause trances~**

_Thanks, but I really can do without any more Death predictions or images of Trelawney having sex to open her Inner Eye. But, I wouldn't be surprised if Lavender signed up for this course._

**~Enchanting:**** This art combines Charms with Arithmancy and sexual magic. It is split into two aspects: creating/improving spells and charms, as well as improving the magical properties of objects (like portkeys) by means of sexual magic and Arithmancy.**

**_*scope: 1 lesson __+ 1 written or practical assignment __per week _**

**_*requirements: _at least Outstanding in Charms and Exceeds Expectations in Arithmancy OWLs, suitable partner, taking Trance-sexual magic**

**_*equipment: _course book~**

_Since I haven't taken Arithmancy, I won't be able to take this course. Not that it appeals to me, but I wouldn't be surprised if Hermione will take this course._

_But at least it seems like the specialized subjects only take up 1 period a week so that I hopefully will still have enough time to play Quidditch._

**~Sexual Potions:**** This art is the most demanding one of all the different sexual magic branches because the participants need to be more compatible and have more self-control than is usual for other branches of sexual magic. It also includes the sub-art of brewing with a human cauldron.**

_***scope: 1 lesson per week + 2 written assignments and accompanying potions a month**_

**_*requirements: _at least Exceeds Expectations in Potions OWLs, suitable partner, taking Trance-sexual magic**

**_*equipment: _course book, standard Potions equipment for OWLs-level Potions, potion ingredients~**

_At least I know that Snape won't be the one teaching this subject, or nothing but an Outstanding in the Potions OWLs would have been needed to take this course. And, since I really want to try to brew the Shërim Mendjen, I have to apply for this class. I dearly hope that I will receive a suitable partner._

**~Warding:**** As the name implies, this art deals with the creation of wards with the ****help of sexual magic. The course will teach the basic of warding, as well as how to strengthen them with sexual magic. **

_***scope: 1 lesson + maximum of 1 written assignment per week + creation of 2 wards (1 normal, 1 by sexual magic) during the year**_

_***requirements: **_**at least Exceeds Expectations in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes OWLs, suitable partner, taking Trance-sexual magic**

_***equipment: **_**course book, additional equipment according to the chosen ward for the assignment**

_Now, this sounds interesting. Why again did I choose useless electives like Divination and Care of Magical Creatures in third year? I really would have liked to learn how to create wards. With my luck, I will need strong wards on my home to protect me from the press for the next decade or so. It would be a lot simpler if I could cast them myself._

_Hermione definitely made a better choice with her elective subjects. She surely will sign up for this with her having cast simple wards while we were fighting Voldemort. Maybe she will cast the wards on my home once I buy one if she gets into the course._

_This makes me wonder if Bill did take this subject when he was at school. With him being a curse breaker, I wouldn't be surprised if he tried out warding this way. When Hermione won't be able to visit this elective, I may have to ask him to receive more information about Warding._

**~Ritual Magic:**** This is the most powerful form of magic and requires a strong bond between the partners, as well as a high amount of self-control. It can be use in nearly every aspect of magic existing, be it the strengthening of existing wards, the curing of illnesses or the creation of protection amulets. This magic nearly has no boundaries.**

_***scope: 1 lesson per week+ performing 3 rituals during the year + a detailed description of the performed rituals**_

_***requirements: one of the partners must have **_**at least received an Exceeds Expectations in Ancient Runes OWLs, suitable partner, taking Trance-sexual magic**

_***equipment: **_**course book, additional equipment according to the chosen rituals~**

_Ancient Runes is required again, but at least only one of the partners has to have received an OWL in this subject. So, if I am lucky, I will be able to learn about this art, especially since it would give me the opportunity to work with warding magic in one way or another. And maybe it will even help with the curing of the Cruciatus Curse's after-effects. _

_**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**_

Having finished reading the brochure Harry laid it down again. It seemed that he would have to sacrifice five of his free periods if he gets to attend all the three additional subjects he decided to take up next year. But it should be more than worth his time.

_Poor Hermione will most likely sign up for all of them expect Divination. Taking her already stuffed timetable into account, she won't be able to attend all of those electives without the help of a Time Turner. But since all Ministry Time Turners were destroyed during our fifth-year, she will have to make some sacrifices, unless some hidden Time Turner emerges in the meantime. Even if this unexpected event should happen, she would still need a compatible partner for all those courses, and I don't believe that anyone besides her will sign up for so many of the Altair electives._

Getting out of bed and walking over to his desk, Harry sat down in the old chair and picked up a quill to start filling out the included form. After writing down his name and birthday in the designated location, he marked the box for Basic Trance-sexual magic as well as the boxes for Sexual Potions and Ritual Magic. After signing the form, he called Hedwig over and tied the filled out and shrunken (thanks to being of age and now free to perform magic out of school) form to her legs.

"Take this to Hogwarts, girl. Rest, then come and find me at the Burrow later today."

After Harry could not see Hedwig any longer in the moonlit sky, he decided that it was finally time to go to bed. With Mr. Weasley arriving around 10 am today, he would need to get up at about 8:30, giving him a bit over seven hours of sleep. He fell asleep soon after his head hit the pillow.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Shërim Mendjen:** Albanian for healing/recovery of the mind (at least this is what Google translated) I found it fitting that an Albanian would have invented a potion which cured the after-effects of the Cruciatus Curse when Voldemort had spent some time in Albania.

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><p><strong>AN_2: <strong>I hope that you like the mentioned subjects so far. I tried to include some of Harry's thoughts, feelings and reasons in this chapter, but since the whole subject of the Altair still needs to be introduced, it will be some time before the reader will get an inside view on Harry's and Draco's minds. The next chapter should be up at the beginning of April at the latest. And will have both Draco and Harry in it, even if they won't interact just yet.


	3. Chapter 2 Happy Birthday Harry

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, _**_~letters and other written stuff~_**

**rating:** M for sexual themes and language in the chapter and slash in later chapters

**(warnings: **some people might consider the description of Ron's character in this chapter as Ron bashing even if in may opinion he is simply his usual self.**)**

**Betas:** jointheclub and Makoto Sagara

update of beta-ed version: 27th July

**AN: **Thank you for the new reviews, alerts and favourites. A special thank you goes to .michi for reviewing again ^_^

At the end of the last chapter, I said that in this chapter both Harry and Draco would make an appearance. But since the beginning of this chapter turned out longer than planned, I decided to split it into two parts instead and update this part already. Chapter 3 will be from Draco's POV.

Also, I have changed the dates in the last chapter having realised that I choose two weekend days in McGonagall's letter, which would be rather counterproductive.

**about the war against Voldemort:** Let's just say, for the sake of the story, that Voldemort was defeated sometime during Harry's sixth year in a quick fight without too many casualties, but there were still some deaths and wounded. And as you most likely have noted, both Snape and Dumbledore are still alive, but that doesn't mean that some things from sixth-year didn't happen. You will learn more about it during the next five chapters or so.

**-~-~- Altair -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- chapter 2 – Happy Birthday, Harry -~-~-**

When the alarm spell Harry had set before going to bed went off at 8:30 in the morning, he needed a few minutes to realise that he would be able to leave this place for good and never have to come back to his personal hell hole again. So with a spring in his steps and his wand in his hand (a precaution for any Good-bye-Harry-beatings from Dudley), he went into the bathroom to shower.

After he was finished in the bathroom and dressed for the day, Harry went down to the kitchen to make himself a light breakfast, knowing that Ms. Weasley would cook a rich lunch in addition to the cake and dinner later, so it would be better to have enough room left for her meals.

When he was finished, he washed up his dishes and then went up to his room to pack the small things lying around in his room, like quills and the spare sock or two. The majority of his possessions Harry hadn't bothered to unpack in the first place.

As expected, the final goodbye between Harry and his relatives was very short and tearless. Dudley did not even come down to see him off because he was scared that now, when Harry could cast magic without being expelled from Hogwarts, he might receive another pig's tail as a parting present. So, he preferred to hide inside his room until Harry was away for good, thus making Harry's earlier precaution of carrying around his wand unnecessary.

In return to Harry's "Well then ... Bye", Petunia offered him a simple "Goodbye Harry", whereas Vernon only had "Good riddance" left for Harry when he left the house with Mr. Weasley at 9:52 to Apparate to the Burrow.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

The two of them arrived at the Burrow without any problems.

"Why don't you go to the yard, and enjoy the nice weather, Harry? The others are already out there playing Quidditch." With that, Mr. Weasley took Harry's trunk and entered the house.

Hermione was the first one to greet him when he arrived at the back of the house since she was sitting on a blanket reading one of her many books while the Weasley children were up in the air playing a Quidditch game.

"Happy Birthday, Harry! It is good to see you again." With that, she gave him a big hug.

"Thank you, Hermione," Harry answered while hugging her back.

Gradually, the Weasley kids all came down from the air and wished him a happy birthday as well. Even Charlie was there.

"Come on, Harry, get your broom and join our game. Our team is in the need for another player anyway," Fred called, who had before Harry's arrival played together with his twin against Ron, Ginny and Charlie.

Harry swiftly complied, being more than happy to have left Privet Drive behind him and being together with his friends having fun for the rest of the summer.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

The Quidditch game lasted till 12:30 pm when Ms. Weasley called them into the house so that they could eat lunch. Needless to say, after eating all of them were too full to continue the game, so they decided to settle down and talk instead until the guests for Harry's birthday party would arrive at three o'clock.

To Harry's surprise, Ms. Weasley had also invited Remus, his wife Tonks, and Luna to his party. He really had not expected to see the werewolf for quite some time, since the last he knew, Remus was still recovering from the wounds Greyback had inflicted on him during the battle against Voldemort, because his monthly transformations tended to set back his recovery, even with the Wolfsbane.

"Happy Birthday, pup," Remus greeted him when he stepped out of the fireplace, still hobbling a bit.

"Thanks. How are you feeling, Remus? I didn't know you were already out of St Mungo's."

"I was released just three days ago. I still need to take it slow, but at least I can finally recover at home."

"Wotcher, Harry," Tonks said when she clumsily fell out of the fireplace. "I see you have grown quite a bit over the hols. But then, most wizards tend to go through a growth spurt around their seventeenth birthday … Happy Birthday, by the way," she added as an afterthought.

"A Happy Birthday from me too," Luna added from the doorway, having just arrived.

"I see everyone is here now," Ms. Weasley called from the kitchen entrance. "Come and settle down at the table."

With that, everyone entered the kitchen, where a big chocolate and cherry cake was sitting on the magically expanded table.

As expected, the cake was delicious and Ron even had a fourth serving of it. How he had room for this after the lunch earlier today, Harry did not know.

After everyone was finished eating, they went into the living room so that Harry could open his presents there.

From Mr. and Ms. Weasley, he received a gold watch. Remus explained to him that it was a traditional gift on a child's seventeenth birthday and was usually given by the young adult's parents.

"I don't know what to say. Thank you." Harry hugged each of them in turn, giving Ms. Weasley a kiss on the cheek too.

"You are our son in everything but blood, Harry," Ms. Weasley told him. "I am proud to have seen you growing into such a fine young man over the last years."

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley." The thought that they saw him as one of their own children warmed Harry's heart. He could not thank them enough for the watch and what it stood for.

Remus gave him the present from him and Tonks next. It was a book about the basics of healing magic since Harry mentioned in one of his letters to Remus that he had developed an interest in becoming a Healer instead of an Auror, but he had not decided for sure yet.

"Thank you, Remus, Tonks"

"Here you go, Harry." With that Hermione handed him her present. It turned out to be a book too. _How very surprising. _It was called '_The 21 Most Potent Potions for Treating Mind Illness' by __**Gjueti Gjeraqinë***__._ The author was also the one who invented the **Shërim Mendjen***.

"I thought that you would be interested in this book, especially in the last potion mentioned in the book," Hermione whispered into Harry's ear while he hugged her in thanks.

She knew that he was very interested in mind healing, especially the Shërim Mendjen, and decided that it was the perfect gift for him, especially if Harry should get into the Sexual Potion class next year.

"Thank you. I can't wait to take a look at it," Harry whispered back.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

If one was wondering why Hermione and Harry were whispering, the reason for this was not that Ginny, who couldn't be told of things related to the Altair, was standing nearby, but that Ron had not reacted well to the whole topic of sexual magic and the possibility to share a room with someone from 'Merlin forbid, Slytherin'.

In his opinion, it was only a pretext for people like Snape to get sex because they would not be able to find an agreeable woman otherwise. He had made his opinion quite clear during the train ride back to London. He even went so far as to prohibit his two best friends to even think about applying to any of the offered Altair electives.

Nevertheless, Hermione and Harry had decided to still sign up for some interesting Altair electives. It was not like Ron would be able to find out if they signed up or not because of the spells in place to secure discretion. Even the accepting letters would not give them away, since the 19th of August would also be the day when the normal book list for the new term would arrive for all seventh years.

The twins thought that Ron was simply afraid that Hermione might find a new boyfriend who shared the same interest in books as herself and was trying to hide his insecurity behind his rash behaviour.

Hermione, on the other hand, thought that he was simply being a jerk about it. So as payback for him forbidding her to sign up for the new electives, she decided to annoy him as much as possible with, in her opinion, interesting facts about sexual magic and the Altair. It was purely academic, of course, since she would never think about going against Ron's prohibition and therefore had to study it in theory only.

But since they did not want to start a fight on Harry's birthday, they (the twins included) agreed to not mention anything Altair related in front of Ron today. Especially since reminding him that he always could escape to the 'Slytherin-free' Gryffindor common room did only so much to calm him down.

But back to where we were before this little interruption.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"Really, Hermione, how could you give him something related to Potions? We were lucky enough to have only received one holiday assignment this year," Ron stated, not planning to do said assignment until the night before his first Potions class of the new school year as usual.

"It's practical and interesting, Ron"

"And I really like it," Harry added.

"I am sure that you will like mine, Ginny's and Charlie's gift even more," Ron said enthusiastically handing over a small package.

It turned out to be new red dragon hide Quidditch gloves with his initials in a golden colour stitched onto the gloves.

"Thanks, you three. They are beautiful."

Luna simply gave him a subscription of The Quibbler.

At last, the twins gave him a blue envelope. Opening it, Harry found a gift certificate from a Healer named Charles **Curador*,** who had a private practice in Diagon Alley.

"Someone told us that you were a girl," George explained.

"And boy," Fred added from besides his twin.

"Magnet during the Altair without your glasses and with the clothes we had sent you. So, we decided to make the change permanent and give you a treatment with an eye-correction specialist as your birthday present."

Harry had noticed that he had gotten some glances from some of the other students that night. And since they were not at all like the ones he got in his second year, Harry had begun to feel more self-confident about his looks at the end of the night. And not needing his glasses would surely also be helpful for some of his new electives.

"Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it." He then gave each of them a hug.

"Have you an idea how expensive such a treatment is? I was researching it some years ago because I was wondering why Madame Pomfrey hadn't cast a spell to correct your eyesight during one of your stays at the Hospital Wing," Hermione asked Harry. "It seems like magic has its struggles if it comes to nerve illnesses, be it illnesses of the mind or of organs which have a lot of nerves like eyeballs. Only a few are able to perform the challenging healing spells or brew the necessary potions for a successful treatment."

"Don't worry, Hermione, we earn enough money with our joke shop to improve Harry's life for the better," George answered her while Fred whispered "It is the least we can do, if you do not want to accept the money you should receive for being our silent partner" into Harry's ear.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Later that day when they were outside grilling, the twins had persuaded their father to have a Muggle barbecue for dinner, an owl arrived for Harry.

Instead of the expected Birthday card from a school friend, it turned out to be from Gringotts.

**~Dear Mr. Harry James Potter,**

**Hereby we officially inform you that with you being of age as of today you receive full access to your inheritance. You are now in a position to access the following accounts you inherited:**

**+Potter family vault (50.135 Galleons **(AN: about 250,000 ₤)**, various objects)**

**+Black family vault (311.653 Galleons **(AN: about 1.5 million ₤)**, various objects)**

**Furthermore you also inherit the following title:**

**+Lord Black, head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black**

**Please visit us at your earliest convenience to finalize the respective paperwork.**

**May your vaults always be full,**

**Rathúil Miodóg***

**Gringotts' inheritance manager~**

"Who is this from?" Ginny asked him.

"Gringotts. It says that I am now Lord Black and also have acquired two more vaults," Harry answered her, still shocked that he now owned even more money.

"They must be the family vaults. I had totally forgotten that you would only gain access to the majority of your inheritance when you came of age. It is a usual safety precaution to assure that underage children don't spend all of their money at once and still have enough left after they know how to handle money," Mr. Weasley explained from the grill.

"Considering that the Blacks were a rather old pureblood family, I bet that you got more money than you could ever dream to spend," George said from Harry's right.

"You could say so," Harry answered now that the shock was mostly over. Holding up the letter a bit, Fred and George were able to read it over each of Harry's shoulders.

"I don't think you will be able to get out of the shopping trip next Tuesday that the girls have planned for you to buy you a completely new wardrobe," Fred said after having read the exact amount of Galleons Harry received.

"It is not like you couldn't afford to buy a new wardrobe every day for the rest of your life now," George added from Harry's right side.

"And you definitely are in the need of a new wardrobe!" Fred continued.

"Yep, you can't let the eyesight correction treatment go to waste by hiding your body in the hand-me-downs you got from your cousin," George said with a clap to Harry's shoulder.

"And since you definitely won't see your relatives ever again, you don't have a reason any more to hide the fact that you have money of your own," Fred ended their speech.

What Fred said was true. Some time ago, the twins asked him why he didn't simply buy himself some fitting casual clothes while he was getting a new school uniform because they knew that Harry had more than enough money to buy himself new clothes. He answered their inquiry with being scared that uncle Vernon would begin to ask questions and maybe even come up with a ridiculously high fee for him staying at his house or wanting a compensation for his sacrifices over the years. Especially since, as his guardians, the Dursleys could easily have taken most of the money he owned away from him when he was still underage. So, Harry preferred to simply continue wearing Dudley's old clothes. It wasn't like the school robes didn't hide the clothes under them anyway.

"Shopping for a _whole_ wardrobe?" Harry asked, feeling a bit scared from all the tales about how women seemed to go mad if they were on a shopping trip.

"Even you know that the twins are right. And with your growth spurt, you will need to buy new things anyway. Even more if you decide to sign up for any of the Altair electives," Hermione added the last part as a whisper so that only Harry and the twins could hear it.

"Don't worry, Harry. We will make it as short as possible for you," Ginny said, coming over to him.

"I will even come with you and Ginny and Hermione to assure that the Nargles stay away, so they can't hide in some of the clothes you are going to try on and make the trip longer than necessary," Luna promised him.

"I can't get out of this, can I?" Harry asked, defeated.

"Not a chance, mate," Ron said from his place near the grill so that he would be able get the first steak. Apparently, he was starved already.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Gjueti Gjeraqinë: **hunting hawk in Albanian (according to Google translator), I don't believe that it would be an actual Albanian name but it sounds good enough for me

**Shërim Mendjen: **Albanian for healing/recovery of the mind, see chapter 1 for further information

**Curador: **Catalan for healer (according to Google translator)

**Rathúil ****Miodóg**: irish for successful and dagger (according to Google translator)


	4. Chapter 3 Briefs or shorts?

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, _**_~letters and other written stuff~_**

**Rating:** M for sexual themes and language, slash in later chapters

**Betas:** jointheclub and Makoto Sagara

Update of beta-ed version: 30th July

**AN: **As promised this chapter will finally give you some insight to Draco's thoughts about the Altair and what the general Wizarding world thinks about the subject of sexual magic.

Also a big thank you for the new reviews, alerts and favourites.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- chapter 3 – briefs or shorts? -~-~-**

**Tuesday, 5th August, 1997, Diagon Alley, Twilfitt and Tatting's **

Since Draco Malfoy had signed up for three of the specialized Altair electives in addition to the required Basic Trance-sexual magic course, he decided that it could not hurt to buy himself some new clothes, especially since he had started to grow out of his current ones. Resizing spells could only accommodate a growth spurt of one inch. And it was likely that Draco would gain at least another inch during the remainder of the holidays. And so he entered Twilfitt and Tatting's to acquire some new clothes, not knowing that he was not the only one who decided that today would be a good day to go on a shopping trip. Harry Potter was already inside the shop with his three female friends: Hermione, Ginny and Luna.

While Harry had not left the changing area in the back of the shop for the past fifty-two minutes, Hermione and Ginny brought him shirts, trousers, jeans and other clothing articles to his changing room to try on. Luna said that she would go ahead and pick out the clothing which didn't require him to try them on, like socks.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"Lovegood, I hope you know that these are men's underwear?" Draco asked when he saw Luna Lovegood holding up a pair of black boxer briefs in her left hand and a pair of blue boxer shorts in her right one with a contemplating look on her face.

"I know: they are for Harry. I simply can't decide what would look hotter on him," Luna answered with a dreamy face.

"Why are you thinking about what underwear would make Potter look hot?" Draco asked perplexed. _I already know this she is weird but contemplating what underwear would suit Potter?_

"Oh, that's easy. Ginny, Hermione and I have taken him on a shopping trip today to get him a completely new wardrobe and since Harry is busy trying out the clothes the other two are picking out for him, I thought I would do Harry a favour and get him some new underwear."

"Okay," he said disbelievingly. Now, Draco was even more perplexed. _Potter is buying himself a new wardrobe? Maybe he has finally gotten some fashion sense? It certainly would be a change for the better, if the clothes he wore at the Altair are anything to go by. I wouldn't mind to have him as my partner for the Altair if he keeps up dressing like a respectable wizard __instead of looking like a scarecrow in his old and too big clothes._

"So, Malfoy, what do you think. Briefs or shorts for Harry?"

"Briefs," Draco answered absently, still immersed in his thoughts of how attractive Potter had looked during the Altair.

"Briefs it will be then. Any suggestions for colours?"

"He did look rather handsome in the dark colours," Draco answered her, but still not realising that he was answering Luna's questions.

"Dark colours are a good choice and maybe some white ones too. Thanks for your help, Draco"

The sound of his first name brought Draco out of his thoughts, and he realised too late that he had actually talked with Lovegood about Harry Potter's underwear. Feeling completely embarrassed about the whole ordeal, he turned around and walked over to another section of the shop. _Why did I even answer her questions in the first place?_

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"There you are, Luna. We are finished here. Have you gotten the things you went to get?" Ginny asked her friend.

"Yes, I've gotten him new socks, underwear and also a new hat and gloves for the cooler months, as well as some new scarfs and belts."

"Let's get out of here then" _ Before Luna decides to show the underwear around. I can't believe that I let a girl pick out my own underwear, _Harry thought not realising that he had spoken the last part out loud.

"Don't worry, Harry. I didn't pick them out by myself. Draco helped me decide what kind they should be and also picked out the general colour scheme of the briefs I got you," Luna answered with a big smile on her face.

It was a good thing for Harry that Hermione and Ginny, with each of them carrying a variety of clothes in their arms, had already moved towards the checkpoint so that they were out of hearing range. Both of them would have had a good laugh over it, especially since Harry had kind of stalked Malfoy last year before the battle against Voldemort, suspecting him to be up to something.

"Malfoy picked out my underwear?" Harry asked, bewildered.

"Yes, he walked into me while I was contemplating if I should get you briefs or shorts. I believe he walked over to the shirt section afterwards." Luna still had the big smile on her face.

"Let's join the others at the checkout so that we can leave for Fortescue's," Harry said hurriedly, not wanting to meet Draco right after he had essentially picked out Harry's underwear. _It is a good think that the shirt section is situated far away from the checkout and the changing rooms. Let's hope that he is still there._

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

_Lovegood didn't lie when she said that Potter was here too. But he still seems to wear the too big clothes he usually wears under his robes. But he at least seems to have stopped wearing his ugly glasses. And if what Weasley and Granger are carrying in their arms is anything to go by Potter really has decided to buy himself a new wardrobe. A fashionable one, from what I can make out from over here. Maybe there is still hope for him, _Draco thought.

_Wait! Are those dark coloured briefs Lovegood is laying down at the checkout desk? Urgh, she really did pick out Potter's underwear according to my previous comments._

After Harry and friends had left the shop, Draco continued with his own clothes shopping for about another half an hour before he Apparated home to the Manor.

"I can't believe that Lovegood made me pick out Potter's new underwear!"

"Did she really?"Lucius Malfoy asked with a smirk from the doorway.

"Unfortunately, yes. It seems like Potter's female friends finally coaxed him not only into getting rid of his horrid glasses but also into acquiring a new wardrobe, if the amounts of clothes he bought today at Twilfitt and Tatting's are anything to go by."

"Interesting. Maybe it would be to our advantage if you would be paired with Mr Potter for your Altair courses."

"If he even signed up for any of them. Considering his inexperience and his Muggle upbringing, I wouldn't be surprised if he would be too bashful to sign up for any of the courses. And the Weasleys most likely haven't taken the time to explain the positive view of the Wizarding world on sexual magic to him to make up for his upbringing. But there is always the hope that Granger's thirst for knowledge will rub off on him."

"It would be a shame if he did not sign up for at least some of the courses. Especially since he is male, powerful magically and if what you have said about his inexperience is true, he is also still a virgin. That combination would allow the two of you to form a powerful bond, which is always a good basis for any form of sexual magic."

_Ah, the whole virginity and forming a strong bond thing again. I had always wondered why my father had insisted that I stay a virgin until I was of age and he had the time to have a talk with me about it. _

_That promised talk or, more accurately, monologue happened the day after I arrived back home from Hogwarts in the beginning of July. It was rather interesting and eye opening, _Draco remembered.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Flashback, beginning of July 1997:**

After I entered my father's study he bid me to sit down in the chair before his huge walnut desk.

"I am sure you already know why you are here," Lucius began his speech. Not waiting for an answer, he continued. "As you have heard, during the Altair celebration some days prior and as you have read in the new copy of _"Hogwarts: A History" _you got for your birthday last month, next school year you will be able to register for some new electives classes. All of them teaching a branch of sexual magic.

Among the purebloods, the art of sexual magic is highly respected since only a few are capable of performing the more powerful and advanced crafts like Ritual Magic or Sexual Potions, which require a high compatibility. Therefore, a couple that is highly compatible and excels in those powerful arts has a high standing in our society and is always respected.

Our high social standing and wealth is founded on the fact that the Malfoy family has always been very gifted in the art of sexual magic. That is why the majority of the money we now own was gained by our ancestors through performing advanced sexual magic. To assure that our place in the Wizarding world, and with it our political influence, is secured, we must do everything in our power to make sure that is stays that way."

_I can't believe that the majority of our social standing is founded on having sex,_ Draco thought.

"One way to achieve this is to stay a virgin until the Altair partner is assigned because the bond between the two people is always a lot stronger when both of them are still virgins before the bonding takes place. As a consequence, the compatibility between them is also higher if they lose their virginities during the bonding ritual. At least, this is what the majority of the Wizarding world thinks.

"But our ancestor **Thothus*** Malfoy has discovered that in reality it is only important that you and your partner _own_ each other's virginities for the bond to be strong and your compatibility to be heightened. But since you do not know beforehand who your partner will be, it is very important for a Malfoy to not have any form of intercourse before the Altair partner is assigned. Afterwards, you are free to have intercourse with your Altair partner before the actual bonding takes place since it will not influence the bond negatively. In most cases, it actually has the opposite effect and strengthens the bond even more if the losing of ones virginity has taken place outside of any bonding ritual." Here, Lucius Malfoy paused and looked at his son.

"So, that is the reason why you have insisted that I was to stay a virgin? I always had wondered why you have never explained your reasoning behind this demand, but because of Altair Black's spell you weren't able to tell my any of this until I was of age," Draco asked his father, finally understanding why he had taken such an interest in him staying a virgin.

"This is correct, Draco. Also, I hope that contrary to me you will be assigned a male partner. Not that your mother is not talented in the arts of Warding and Enchanting, but an exclusively male pair is always a lot stronger than a mixed or purely female pair."

_I really did **not **need to know that my parents perform sexual magic together._

"The reason behind this is that not only is a same gender bond more balanced out because it is possible to not only change the positions in regard to who is the dominant and who is the submissive one, but additionally it is possible to also change the top and bottom status which is not possible for a mixed pairing. That is why magic seems to regard same sex pairings as more equal and therefore also more powerful.

"Furthermore a male-male pairing is preferred because of the peculiarity of the male body. As you already know, it is quite obvious if a man is aroused or if he has an orgasm. Both of those things play an important part in many branches of sexual magic because self-control and with this control over one's arousal and orgasms is a main factor in many of the more advanced sexual magic practices. Additionally, for males, opposed to women, it is possible to penetrate someone else without the aid of an additional instrument, making men even more suited for advanced sexual magic.

"As a result of this peculiarity, the gender plays an important role in the compatibility of two people. It would be a waste if two males own a lot of self-control but end up with a woman, which would weaken the bond. Therefore, the majority of the powerful pairings are male-male couples because most of the sexual magic revolves around self-control and penetrating.

"That is why the branches of Ritual Magic and Sexual Potions are dominated by males because they require a high compatibility, which mostly only a male-male couple, can provide to be able to successfully perform the magic," Lucius ended his speech.

"So this means if I want to become a Potions master, then it would be favourable if I got a male partner for the Altair electives because then I would be able to further advance into the Art of Potion making?" Draco asked. _Not that I do not prefer the male gender anyway. They are a lot less annoying then females and, most importantly, I would not have to worry about their periods and possible pregnancies. And not to forget that a fit male body is always nice to look at._

"Yes, having a compatible male partner would be preferable, especially since you will be creating a bond which is strengthened by the fact that you will own each other's virginities. It would be to your advantage to have a male bonding partner with whom you could occasionally brew sexual potions later, after you received your Mastery in Potions," Lucius answered his son's question.

**End Flashback**

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

_But, back to the present matter, having Potter as my Altair partner certainly would not hurt me. Besides the fact that he is obviously male, I am sure that he is a virgin and his potion skills have also improved in the last year. No, I don't think that it would be a bad thing if he turned out to be my partner, especially if he continues to look like he did during the Altair. He was very easy on the eyes then, and his green eyes... Wait, did he even take Arithmancy? No, he didn't. Shit._

"You are right, father. But, if I got paired up with Potter, I won't be able to take some of my chosen Altair electives, since Potter has taken neither Arithmancy nor Ancient Runes." _And I really would like to learn Warding additionally to Ritual Magic and Sexual Potions._ _Even if I can't deny that I would greatly enjoy performing sexual magic with Potter. _"But as long as my partner is male, I do not really have a preference."

"We will have to wait and see who your partner will turn out to be, Draco. But let us hope for the best." With that, Lucius ended the conversation and left the room.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Thothus*: **Thoth – Egyptian God of Wisdom, Time, Writing and the Moon; head of an ibis. I added the -us to make it more pureblood like and worthy of a Malfoy. Thoth alone didn't sound strong enough for a Malfoy.

* * *

><p><strong>AN_2:<strong> I hope you enjoyed reading this little shopping trip since it was rather easy to write. Draco's talk(s) with Lucius, on the other hand, gave me some trouble. It was hard to find the words for the images in my head. But I hope that you like the first glimpse of Draco's thoughts and have noticed his attraction to Harry and him (mostly) being gay, opposed to Harry being bi(/not caring about the gender of his partner).

**Next chapter:** the rest of Harry's day, which I moved to chapter 4 so that I could update this part at least since the Gringotts scene is giving me some trouble. (Harry and Draco finally finding out that they are partners should happen in chapter 4 or 5.)


	5. Chapter 4 So he is male

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, _**_~letters and other written stuff~_**

**Rating:** M for sexual themes and language, slash in later chapters

**Betas:** jointheclub and Makoto Sagara

update of beta-ed version: 7th August

**AN: **As I mentioned in my last AN, this chapter contains the rest of Harry's day in Diagon Alley that I had taken out from chapter 3 because I had some trouble writing the Gringotts scene.

I am honoured that so many people have sign up for the story alert. Also, thanks to the ones who reviewed the last chapter and added Altair to their favourite story list. ^_^

**-~-~- Altair -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- chapter 4 – So, he is male -~-~-**

**Tuesday, 5th August, 1997, Diagon Alley, Gringotts**

After Harry had paid for his new clothes without running into Draco Malfoy, he and his three female friends left the clothing shop to eat some ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour before moving on to Gringotts to finalize the inheritance papers.

"Good afternoon. I have an appointment with **Rathúil Miodóg*** today. Could you please inform him of my arrival?" Harry asked the goblin at one of the counters.

"If you would please wait here for a minute, sir," the goblin replied before disappearing.

"Good afternoon Mr. Potter," Miodóg greeted him when he arrived. "If you would please follow me back to my office so that we can complete the necessary paperwork?" When Miodóg noticed that Harry's friends wanted to follow them, he added, "Your companions may wait here or come back in about half an hour."

"It's alright, Harry. We will just go over to Flourish and Blotts in the meantime. I wanted to buy a new book or two anyway," Hermione said to Harry when he stopped to shoot a questioning look at them.

"Okay. I will meet you there later."

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

After the signing of the papers was completed and he finally had access to his new vaults, Harry had asked Miodóg if it would be possible to transfer about 500 Galleons (AN: 2500 £) from the Potter family vault into his regular vault, number 687, because he had had to pay for the new clothes he had bought that morning with the money in his own personal which was rather empty right now. He would have preferred to pay for the clothes directly with the money from the Potter vault, but unfortunately he did not have access to the family vaults before he had signed any of the accompanying paperwork. Lucky for him, it turned out that money transfers between one's own vaults were not problematic at all. The money would simply "Apparate" between the two vaults in question without one having to carry the gold from one vault to the other.

At last, Miodóg handed the Black family ring over to Harry, ending the whole inheritance acceptance process. After he put the ring on his left hand for safekeeping, Miodóg asked him if he wanted to take a look at the family vaults to see what the unspecified objects in the vault listing were.

Hoping that in the Potter vault there would be some childhood pictures of his father or other similar things of sentimental value, Harry decided that a quick look into the two vaults could not hurt.

_Better find out if I need to get rid of any Dark artefacts there are in the Black vault sooner rather than later._

When Harry noticed that the Potter family vault did not contain any sentimental objects but only some books, old furniture and jewellery beside the mountains of Galleons, he was disappointed but not sad. _Most of the personal things would have been at Godric's Hollow where they were destroyed by Voldemort's attack all those years ago. Not very surprising, but one could still have hoped._

"Let's move on to the Black family vault," Harry said with no enthusiasm. He was still a bit disappointed at the outcome of his trip to the Potter family vault but nevertheless withdrew some money for the school-shopping in little over a week's time.

Upon entering the Black family vault, Harry noticed that it was not very different from the Potter vault. The only obvious difference was that instead of a book section, this vault had a portrait section at the left side of the vault.

_Since the Black house does have a rather big library, they would not need to store their books here. I just hope that those portraits aren't as bad as Mrs. Black's portrait at Grimmauld Place._

Unconsciously, Harry noticed he had walked over to the portraits. When he became aware of his surroundings again, he was captivated by one portrait especially, since it was the only one which was not covered with some fabrics. The portrayed person was very young, most likely not even out of Hogwarts and resembled Sirius a lot, but it could also have been his younger brother Regulus, since both of them looked quite similar when they were young at least this was what Remus had told him once.

In the hope of finding out which one of the Black brothers was shown in the portrait, Harry knelt down by the oval portrait to look for a name. Unluckily, the nameplate at the front of the portrait was empty. Even more surprising was the fact that the figure in the portrait had his eyes closed like in sleep; however, contrary to the sleeping portraits in the headmaster's office, the portrayed person did not show any indication that he was breathing or alive at all.

_It must be a Muggle portrait then. But what is something Muggle doing inside the Black family vault when they are known for despising anything non-magical and not pureblooded?_

Intrigued, he turned it around and found an inscription, **~For my beloved nephew, Sirius, so that he may also receive the traditional Black portrait, Love ****Alphard Black*****~, **written on the back of the portrait.

_So, it really is Sirius. But why is his portrait not alive like all the other Wizarding ones I have seen so far? Considering that his uncle Alphard was also a pureblood, it should be a Wizarding portrait, not a Muggle one. So, why isn't Sirius's image breathing, even if he is asleep? - It can't be because he fell through the veil, can it? _This thought made Harry agitated.

_But, it is the only explanation I can think of right now. The magic most likely isn't working because his body/spirit/whatever has left this plane, _Harry thought with a mixture of longing, fury and sadness.

_If Bellatrix was not already dead, I would gladly kill her again. Not only did she take Sirius away from me, but she also made sure that his portrait would not be able to come alive! _Harry thought bitterly.

After taking some deep breaths, Harry looked up at the ceiling and decided that even if Sirius's portrait was not animated, it still did not deserve to simply gather dust inside the vault. So, he took out his wand to shrink the portrait of his young godfather to take it with him. He would later decide what to do with it. Pocketing the shrunken portrait, Harry turned to Miodóg, who had patiently waited outside for him to finish his look into the Black family vault, to inform the goblin that he was ready to leave the bank.

"As you wish, Mr. Potter" With that both of them entered the cart to ride up to the upper levels of the bank.

A short time later, Harry met up with his friends in Flourish and Blotts, but he did not mention the portrait to them.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"To a new life!" They all chorused, clinking their glasses together while happily watching Harry's old hand-me-downs burning in the campfire in the backyard of the Burrow.

The twins had decided that it would be good for Harry to properly part with his old life, and what would be better than burning Dudley's old clothes? Not only did they serve as a reminder for the bad treatment he had received from his relatives, but also in a metaphorical sense for Voldemort, who was the reason for him having to stay with his aunt's magic-hating family in the first place.

So when Harry and the girls came back from their shopping trip in the afternoon, the twins had taken it into their own hands to gather all of Harry's old clothes in the backyard. They even forced Harry out of the clothes he wore during his shopping trip, not wanting to leave behind any of Dudley's hand-me-downs. Harry quickly changed into some of his newly purchased clothes before he wound end up naked in the middle of the Weasleys' living room - especially since the girls were still there. The twins even confiscated his old glasses to burn them too, saying that he didn't need them now since he had had his vision corrected last Friday. (The twins had made an appointment for Harry for the day after his birthday).

Harry had to admit that looking at the burning clothes in the campfire was very therapeutic. Seeing the clothes burn felt like the conclusion to the book called "My life with Voldemort and the Dursleys" was finally happening. It was like he only now realised that Voldemort was dead for good and would never come back again so that meant he would never have to see his relatives either. In short, he felt like he could breathe easier now.

"Who wants to roast marshmallows over it?" One of the twins asked.

"No one," Ginny said harshly.

"It is unhygienic," Hermione added.

"Your loss," the twins said simultaneously with a shrug of their shoulders before they each took out a handful of marshmallows and put them on sticks to roast them over the burning clothes.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Later that evening, when everyone was watching the campfire burn down, Harry finally had the chance to ask Hermione his question about the meaning of the compatibility of the body. To not be overheard, the both of them walked away from the group and settled down by one of the oak trees surrounding the house.

"I was wondering, do you know what compatibility of the body entails? Magical compatibility I can imagine well enough since it must be similar to a wand choosing a wizard and how well someone else's wand works for you. But how can bodies be compatible?" Harry asked his best friend, hoping to finally solve the mystery from some days ago.

"I think the best and easiest example would be a female-female pair where their monthly period circle has a great influence on their compatibility since some sexual magic requires them to be at a certain state of their circle. But this is nothing which would apply to you."

"True, but it is a good example."

"Regarding a pair that has at least one male, I am not certain myself since this topic seems to be not fully understood and my own research on this isn't finished yet, but what I have found out so far says that the virginity or lack of it plays an important role in the compatibility of two persons. Since the claiming of virginities plays such an important role during the bonding.

"Also, if you have pubic hair or not seems to be a major aspect. However, I do not know how the fact that you permanently charmed of all of your pubic hair can influence your compatibility," she explained.

"Neither can I," Harry answered her.

"Some authors argue that also the amount of self-control and self-discipline someone has is important, as well as their own preference when it comes to the kinkier side of sex. Like their tendencies towards bondage or spanking." Here both of them blushed, Harry more than Hermione.

Nevertheless, Hermione talked on: "But most of it seems to be speculations based on experience the authors themselves made or the couples they studied."

"To me, it sounds more like they must be at the same level of experience and have the same sexual tendencies and preferences. So, it is more a psychologicall compatibility rather than a physical compatibility like the name suggest."

"I agree. Most of the other things mentioned in the books seem to be more psychological than physical in nature."

After a short pause Hermione asked Harry if he had found the time to take a look at the detailed description of the **Shërim Mendjen***.

"Unfortunately, not yet. During the day, we are all outside together, and in the evening, Ron is always with me in our room. I don't want to start a fight by reading something related to Sexual magic when he obviously despises the topic. But I plan to read it as soon as we are back at Hogwarts."

"With the new rooming arrangement, you should easily find a secure reading place regardless of receiving a compatible partner or not."

"As long as we don't end up together, everything should work out fine."

"Hey, I am not a bad roommate," Hermione said aggrieved.

"No, you're not, but I still don't want to practice Sexual Magic with you. I wouldn't have a problem with sharing a regular Altair room with you though," Harry retorted.

"Sorry, I didn't think you meant it that way since I can't imagine us doing anything like that. It would be just weird."

"My thoughts exactly."

"By the way, do you have a certain preference regarding your partner?" Hermione asked curiously. Personally, she thought that Harry needed a partner who would take care of him and on whom Harry could rely. And since females tended to see him as their very own fairy-tale prince on a white horse, their hero who would save the day, a male partner who would take the role of the protector in Harry's stead would do him some good.

"Considering that the Shërim Mendjen requires two males to successfully brew it, I would prefer a male partner, but since the chances of being compatible enough to brew it are very small, I don't really care either way."

"Finally having someone who could brew the Shërim Mendjen would be welcomed with open arms these days. With your luck, I wouldn't be surprised if you would receive a partner who is compatible enough to brew the potion with you."

"You mean the same _"luck"_ which _"graced"_ me with a free access to a great amount of Basilisk skin in my second year?" Harry asked sarcastically. (AN: For those of you who have forgotten; Basilisk skin is a main ingredient of the Shërim Mendjen.)

"I was more thinking in the direction that both becoming an Auror and a Healer require the **same NEWTs classes*** or you would not be able to change between them so easily this late in your schooling," she answered him in a bantering undertone.

"There's the Hermione I know and love; always concerned about my education," Harry joked back. "But seriously, after having read most of the book Remus and Tonks gave me for my birthday, I have decided that I will apply to the Healer program instead of Auror training after school. Healing is even more interesting than I first thought it would be. So, yeah, I must be lucky that both require the same NEWTs."

"I am glad to hear you want to become a Healer. I always thought that you deserve some time away from dark wizards and life threatening situations. You had enough of that already."

"And a Healer doesn't get in contact with life threatening situations?" Harry asked jokingly.

"At least then you won't be the one whose life is on the line. Rather, you will be the one to save the patients, appeasing your saving-people-thing at the same time," she said with a smile.

"Very funny, Hermione. But we better go back to the others before they wonder where we are."

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Tuesday, 19th August, 1997, the Burrow**

"Look; these must be your book lists for the new term," Mrs. Weasley said when she looked out of the window and saw 4 owls heading their way.

It was a good thing that Ron and Ginny were sitting opposite Harry and Hermione since the letters did also contain the information which Altair electives those two would be attending next term. Finally getting to know if he could learn more about Sexual Potions, Harry eagerly opened his own letter.

**~Dear Mr. Potter,**

**I am glad to inform you that you have been assigned a compatible partner, and will be able to attend the following Altair electives in the upcoming school year:**

***Basic Trance-sexual magic**

***Sexual Potions**

***Ritual Magic**

**The necessary equipment and books for those classes, which are mentioned in your book list, can be purchased at Timber and Bonker's*. They also take owl orders, if you should require additional equipment during the school year.**

**Please pay close attention to the specific title of your Altair course books because most of the volumes are available in three different editions (male, female and mixed pairings). Please buy the edition specified in your list for your assigned pairing.**

**Regards,**

**M. McGonagall**

**Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts~**

Looking up from his own letter, Harry smiled at Hermione to communicate to her that he had received a partner and would be taking Sexual Potions. Hermione smiled right back at him, signalling that she too had gotten a compatible partner.

_Let's see if my famous luck, which tends to get me in and out of troubles on countless times, also let me receive a male partner so that I'll be able to learn more about Sexual Potions._

Taking forth his book list he quickly skimmed it. His eyes came to a halt when the first sexual magic book title was mentioned.

**~278 Sexual magic Rituals for the males~**

_So, my partner is male. Thank god I won't have to worry about my partner's period schedule or have her go all sentimental on me like Cho did. Now, I only will have to worry what the catch part of my luck will turn out to be. But at least I know for certain that I and Hermione did not end up being partners. It would have just been weird._

"Oh, I've been appointed Head Girl!" Hermione exclaimed joyously from his right side.

Ron was rather vocal in his congratulations because he shouted "I knew it" from across the table. The rest of the Weasleys present congratulated her in calmer manners than him.

"Congratulations!" Harry said, giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, very happy for her. Seizing the opportunity, he whispered into her ear: "By the way, my partner is male".

"Thank god," she whispered back, relieved that their fear of ending up together for their Altair electives was for naught she smiled even more. Since the letters, did not give away the name of their partner, but only s hint at the gender through the book titles, she could not have been sure if her obvious male partner had not turned out to be Harry after all.

_With that issue out of the way, Hermione and I now only need to abandon the rest of the group for about an hour so that we can take a trip to Timber and Bonker's to get our additional materials without Ron noticing where we went to. Maybe the twins will help us with finding a good excuse?_

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Tuesday, 19th August, 1997, Malfoy Manor**

At the same time, Draco Malfoy also received his latest Hogwarts' book list, together with his Altair acceptance letter that was identical to Harry's. Sitting down on his windowsill, he read the letter appointing him as Head Boy first.

_Now, this is a surprise. I thought that after I resigned my prefect status last year that they would appoint Goldstein as the new Head Boy, h_e thought while shrugging his shoulder.

Not caring either way, he moved on to the more important Altair electives acceptance letter before finally taking a quick look at the book list to find out the gender of his partner.

_No Warding, but at least the book list indicates that my partner is male. Thank Merlin for small courtesies! I would not have known what to do if I ended up with Pansy or some of the other annoying girls in my year. A male partner should make father rather happy too. And as much as I would have liked to learn Warding, it is more important for my goal to become a Potions master that I am able to learn about Sexual Potions. _

_The fact that I won't be able to take Warding means that my partner must be a male student who has not taken Arithmancy and/or Ancient Runes or did not receive the necessary grades in their OWLs to take up Warding because otherwise they would have included that my assigned partner is asked if he would consider taking another subject as well._

_The chances of **him** being Potter therefore have risen greatly. _Here, Draco unconsciously smiled._ Let's just hope that it isn't Weasley. Redheads are so not my type. But as father said the other day, I will have to wait and see who my partner will turn out to be. _With that thought, Draco left his room to meet his father downstairs so that they could go to Diagon Alley to get the school shopping done.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Rathúil Miodóg**: irish for successful and dagger (according to Google translator)

**Alphard Black: **He is the uncle who supported Sirius with money after he had broken with his family. I thought it fitting that he would also be the one who "smuggled" a portrait of Sirius into the Black family vault. Let's just say (for the sake of the story) that for a family member it is possible to put something into the family vault without the current head of the family knowing about it. Withdrawing from the vault on the other hand is only possible if you are the current head of the family.

**Shërim Mendjen: **Albanian for healing/recovery of the mind, see chapter 1 for further information

**Same NEWTs classes for Healera and Aurors: **I was surprised when my research revealed that this fact is actually true. I thought that I would need to twist the subjects to my purposes, but it turned out that both careers require the following NEWTs: Potions, Transfiguration, Herbology, Charms, and Defence Against the Dark Arts.

**Timber and Bonker's: **A shop in Diagon Alley I made up by randomly pointing on words in my dictionary. It is surprising that they turned out to be sexually if you count "bonking" and give "wood" the meaning of cock. Lucky me, finding the perfect name in the first try. I just hope that I will have the same luck when it comes to finding names for their new teachers.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Important Question: **With whom should I pair up Hermione for the Altair electives? Right now I am undecided between Dean Thomas (no romance), Terry Boot romance and jealous Ron) and Blaise Zabini (maybe romance). You are free to suggest other people too. But it can't be Ron or Neville, because Ron obviously did not sign up for any of those classes and Neville will be Ron's room-mate.

It is not like I will be explicitly writing about Hermione but her chosen partner will influence the dynamic between her and Ron, and consequently Harry outside of classes. I would be grateful if you could tell me your opinion.

**AN_2: **The portrait will have another important appearance in a later chapter. Also, the Black's portrait tradition will be explained later on by Draco, who would know about it because of his mother being a Black by birth.

On an other note, the rather tiring but necessary explanation of Sexual Magic and co. is nearly over. Only some basics about bonds are left which I withheld for their lessons at Hogwarts.

**Next: **We will finally reach the part of the story which takes place at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, I won't be able to update next week since I will be rather busy with Easter approaching but then I only promised to update at least once a month not weekly and this is the longest chapter so far. The positive effect of this is that you have more time to inform me with whom I should pair up Hermione ;)


	6. chapter 5 The Altair partners

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, _**_~letters and other written stuff~, _**_-o-o-o- _break for easier reading

**Rating:** M for sexual themes and language, slash in later chapters

**Warning 1:** Major cliffhanger ahead but the next chapter will (hopefully) be out in a week's time, so please forgive me for ending this chapter where it ends I just couldn't resist the temptation.

**Warning 2: **Like in chapter two some people might consider the description of Ron's character in this chapter as Ron bashing, even if in my opinion he is simply his usual self, especially if you take his behaviour in fourth year into account.

**Warning 3: **Longest chapter so far, it is twice as long as the previous ones. But since I promised that this chapter would take place at Hogwarts, I was unable to split it up.

**Betas:** jointheclub and Makoto Sagara

**Update of beta-ed version:** 9th August

**AN: **Thank you all for your input concerning with whom I should pair up Hermione. The resulting pairing was very unambiguous, and will be revealed in this chapter.

Over 50 people have signed up for the story alert, Thank you ^_^

Also, I hoped you all had a happy Easter holiday ^_^

**-~-~- Altair -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- chapter 5 – the Altair partners -~-~-**

**Monday, 1st September 1997, On the Hogwarts Express**

_I can't believe that this is one of the last times I will be riding the Hogwarts Express_, Harry reminiscently thought, while he sat inside his compartment, looking out of the window at the passing landscape and waiting for his two friends to return from the Prefect meeting they had gone to half an hour ago.

_The two of them should be back any minute. Ah, here they are, _Harry thought, redirecting his gaze from the window to the door when he heard the compartment door being opened.

"So, how was the Prefect meeting, Head Girl?" Harry asked with a smile when the two of them entered the compartment.

"Great," she exclaimed, sitting down on the bench across from Harry.

"Great? They appointed Draco-bloody-Malfoy as the Head Boy! Couldn't they have given the position to someone more deserving, like Anthony Goldstein?" Ron complained, settling down next to Harry.

"Stop it already, Ron. Malfoy truly deserves this, especially with everything he did last year," Hermione scolded him.

"That is exactly my point! That **son of a Death Eater*** is the reason that You-Know-Who and his followers invaded Hogwarts near the end of last year."

"Ron," Harry began calmly turning his body towards his friend, "you know as well as we all do that he only did that because he was following Dumbledore's plan so that Voldemort and his Death Eaters could be led into a trap. Without him, we would never have been able to defeat Voldemort so quickly and with a minimum number of casualties."

"As if; the ferret only did this to save his own skin because Snape had found out that he planned to let them in and was afraid that they would send him to Azkaban because of it."

"Now, you are being delusional," Hermione said and started to correct him. "Professor Snape only suggested to Malfoy that the option to ask for help from the light side was always open to him and that Headmaster Dumbledore would not be prejudiced if he decided to turn to him for help. Professor Snape did not know what Draco's exact task from Voldemort was before Malfoy turned to Dumbledore for help.

"We are all lucky that Malfoy could not stand to endanger all of the innocent students, regardless that the life of his own family was at risk if he should fail his assigned task. Had he not decided to turn to the light side in the end, Hogwarts very well could have fallen into Voldemort's hands, instead of Voldemort being the one that fell that night. Since no one would have known that he was repairing the Vanishing Cabinet inside the Room of Requirement. And considering that he was able to repair it on his own, without any outside help, it only shows how intelligent he is.

"We all owe him for making it possible to end the war before it really could have started with our side having the advantage during the one big deciding fight and be thankful that he sacrificed his family's well-being to ensure that the students would not be in danger.

"So whatever silly feud your families have, you should let it rest." With that Hermione finished her defence of Draco Malfoy.

"She is right, Ron. Stop being immature and grow up," Harry aided Hermione.

"Silly feud?!" Ron squealed standing up from his seat. "Have you already forgotten what his family did? His Death Eater father gave Ginny the cursed diary in her first year. And where did it lead to? You, Hermione, together with three others, getting stunned by a Basilisk, Ginny nearly dead, and Hogwarts was nearly closed. Silly feud indeed," Ron huffed, crossing his arms and letting himself fall back again into his seat, looking pointedly at his shoes; very obviously not wanting to meet Hermione's or Harry's eyes.

"Ron, do you blame Ginny for what happened with the Chamber?" Harry asked his friend gingerly.

"What do you think? Of course, I am not blaming her for anything"

"Then, why do you still blame them?" Harry asked, still being cautious so as to not set off Ron. "You were there when the Order explained Mr. Malfoy's situation. He is as innocent as Ginny is in that aspect."

"Lucius Malfoy, innocent?" Ron asked unbelievingly.

"Yes, innocent. He could not help what that damn diary did as much as Ginny could have helped it. Both of them were controlled through the Horcrux inside the diary. He was compelled by it to give the diary to a **female***, pureblooded Hogwarts student, who preferably was just starting Hogwarts to ensure that she would not have any Occlumency shields to protect herself from its influence.

"But unlike with Ginny, the Horcrux made sure that Lucius Malfoy would not have any memory of the diary left, so that he would not have been able to prevent any of the events at Hogwarts from happening."

"Because the oh-so-great Lucius Malfoy doesn't know how to perform Occlumency himself," Ron said sarcastically.

"He doesn't. That was why Bellatrix was the one who had to teach Draco how to perform Occlumency," Harry said, having heard that piece of information while overhearing a talk between Snape and Dumbledore.

"Hmpf," was Ron's only answer.

After a moment of silence, Ron, with his childish grudge, tried again to show the Malfoys in a bad light.

"And how, Harry, do you explain his attendance during You-Know-Who's resurrection at the end of our fourth year and his presence in the Department of Mysteries in fifth year?" Ron asked victoriously.

Hermione took over answering from Harry: "The Imperius Curse. During his trial after the first war, he already proclaimed that Voldemort had held him under the Imperius Curse because he had wanted to use the Malfoys' political influence, social standing, money as well as their special prowess in Sexual Magic.

"The spell was lifted when Voldemort lost his physical body when he tried to kill Harry all those years ago. But when he had gotten his body back he immediately put Lucius Malfoy back under the Imperius through the Dark Mark, which Mr. Malfoy wasn't able to get rid of during the years of Voldemort's absence."

Not wanting to give up just yet, Ron went on: "Didn't you just say a minute ago that the Malfoys have a special prowess for Sexual Magic?" he asked, saying the words Malfoys and Sexual Magic with clear disdain in his voice. "Why could he not simply perform one of those stupid Rituals and be done with it?"

"Because this kind of magic isn't as easy as you make it out to be," Hermione exclaimed, her patience nearly run out by now. "So, if you have quite finished coming up with silly accusations, I would be thankful if you could stop talking about the Malfoys as they were Voldemort himself, because they aren't and never would have been on his side if they could have helped it. So, talk about something else."

"Silly accusations? Are you all blinded by their acting? The Malfoys are dark, always were, always will be. I wouldn't be surprised if they are secretly working on bringing Voldemort back again," Ron said, not being able to let the matter rest.

"Stop it already, Ron; neither of the Malfoys have done anything to deserve those accusations. Especially Draco, I do not know what we would have done if he hadn't decided to risk his own life and the life of his family to help us lure Voldemort into the trap. But, most likely, we would not be sitting here riding the Hogwarts Express to start our last year," Harry said having had enough of Ron's ever present grudge against the Malfoys.

Especially since the rest of the Weasleys have been able to acknowledge that neither of the two male Malfoys were to be blamed for what Voldemort forced them to do. Molly was especially grateful to the Malfoys since Lucius had saved Bill from being turned into a werewolf by Greyback after Voldemort was defeated and the Imperius was lifted from the Malfoy Lord, who saw Bill being attacked.

"You two have gone nuts, defending the Malfoys of all people? Can't you see that they are twisted and rotten? I am fed up. I'm leaving," Ron announced as he stood, having had enough of his two friends defending the Malfoys, who were still the enemies in his eyes.

At that moment, the compartment door was opened by non-other than Draco Malfoy or as Ron thought, the devil himself.

"Granger, do you have a moment?" he asked Hermione from the compartment entrance.

"Sure. Come on in and sit down," she invited him.

"Thank you," he said, letting a steaming Ron out of the compartment first before entering it himself together with Blaise Zabini, the seventh-year Slytherin prefect. Draco sat down next to Hermione, while Blaise took the seat Ron had just vacated next to Harry.

While Draco was asking Hermione some questions concerning Head Boy/Girl business, Blaise told Harry: "I have to say that those clothes look good on you, Potter. I hope that this will be a permanent change."

"Thanks, and it is. The girls, meaning Hermione, Ginny and Luna, took me clothes shopping at the beginning of last month."

"With Luna, you mean Lovegood, yes?" he asked, surprised. After Harry's confirming nod, he continued. "I wouldn't have thought the she had any fashion sense, considering what she wears herself."

"She only picked out the accessories. The majority of the clothes were chosen by the other two." Harry looked over at Hermione while he said this. Seeing Draco sitting next to her, he remembered that Draco had actually picked out part of his new wardrobe too. Embarrassed, he turned a bit red.

"A shame that we won't be sharing a room this year," Blaise said, finding Harry's red tinted cheeks cute, wondering why Harry had blushed in the first place.

"How do you know that we won't be sharing a room? It won't be announced until later tonight who our roommate will be," Harry asked him obliviously.

Having finished their conversation, both Hermione and Draco wanted to know the answer to that question too, even if they already had a good idea of how Blaise knew this.

"Because I know for a fact that I will be sharing a room with someone of the female gender," Blaise said with a smile.

Realization dawned on Harry. _Natch, he must know this from the titles of his Altair books. That means he is taking some of the Altair electives too. I wonder if Malfoy is also taking some of those Altair courses. Considering what Hermione said earlier to Ron about the Malfoys having a prowess for Sexual magic, it would be surprising if he wasn't taking any Altair electives. But then, you never know if there is a compatible partner for him in our year._

Draco smirked and Hermione smiled while saying: "Maybe we will end up together instead."

_So, Granger is taking some Sexual Magic classes_, Draco thought. _I wonder if Potter has followed her example. He really looks hot without his glasses and with his new fitting clothes. And since this change will be permanent, thanks to his new wardrobe, I would like him to be my partner. Out of all the other guys in my year, he really is the best looking one. And since Blaise obviously is out of the question, there isn't really anyone else I would like to be paired with._

"Maybe," Blaise answered Hermione with a smile.

"Or you could end up with Potter," Draco said jokingly to Hermione, hoping to find out if Harry had signed up for any Altair electives too.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but that won't be happening," Hermione answered him.

"And why is that?" Draco asked her interested.

"Because, as well as Blaise knows that he will be paired with a girl, I know that I will be sharing a room with a boy," Harry answered the question in Hermione's stead. "So, maybe the two of us will end up together instead?" Harry asked Draco with a challenging look.

"It could happen," was Draco's simple answer that was paired with a mischievous smirk. Privately, he was happy to know that Potter had decided to register for the Altair electives, and, therefore, he had the chance to be paired with Potter since both of them had a male partner.

_This answers whether he did get a partner or not. And his partner is male too. Maybe we really will be paired for the Altair classes, and he is a lot better than Goyle, _Harry thought.

"Poor Parkinson, she must be devastated to not being able to share a room with you this year, considering how close the two of you were at the beginning of last year," Harry said teasingly, remembering how he had witnessed Draco's head lying in Pansy's lap during the train ride last year.

"I'm not. For all I care about that bitch, she can be paired with Mrs Norris," Draco stated, still remembering how Pansy had cheered on Voldemort and his followers during the Battle of Hogwarts not so long ago.

"What a shame, I have heard that she only applied to the Altair electives in the hope to be paired with you. But you never know who your partner will turn out to be," Blaise commented. "By the way, since we are already discussing Altair partners, does anyone know how the pairings are assigned?" Blaise asked, hoping that the Head Girl might know the answer to the question.

"If I am not mistaken, the people who have signed up for any of the Altair electives are paired through a device that is a mix of the Goblet of Fire and the Sorting Hat. They seem to enter a copy of your Altair sign-up form into the device, which later spits out the compatible pairings. If there isn't a compatible partner, then your name simply won't be spit out at all. The rest of the students, regardless of having signed up for Altair classes or not, are paired in regard to their chosen subjects," Hermione said, answering Blaise's question.

"Interesting," both Draco and Blaise answered.

"As much as I find our talk entertaining, I think it is time that we move on. We still have our patrol rounds to finish. If you'll excuse us," Draco said, looking at the time.

"Well then, we will see you later in the Altair common room," Blaise said, following Draco out of the compartment.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

After the Welcoming Feast was over, all of the seventh-year students went quickly to their dorms to enter the Altair common room. They were all eager to find out with whom they would be sharing a room for the next year, or who their Altair partner turned out to be, hoping that he or she would be someone they do not mind to have sexual interactions with. When the last of the seventh-year students arrived in the new common room, the teachers' door opened and the Heads of each House together with the Headmaster, walked into the room.

Dumbledore skipped any unnecessary speeches, since he had already greeted them with the rest of the school during the Welcoming Feast, and came right to business. "Welcome back to the seventh-year common room. Since I believe that all of you are rather tired from the long travel and the rich feast, I do not want to hold you up any longer than necessary. So, lets start announcing the rooming arrangements right away so that you all finally can go to bed. Professor Snape, if you would please announce the pairings and their assigned rooms."

"Since most of you dunderheads most likely have forgotten over the holidays what was said at the end of last year, I find it necessary to remind you that the assigned pairings are final and won't be changed, no matter how much you complain about it." Here, he looked especially at Pansy Parkinson before his gaze shifted over to Draco and Harry, who coincidentally were standing near each other.

At that time, the students thought he was looking in the direction of Malfoy and Potter because both of them had a history of being spoiled brats in his eyes. It was founded on the fact that in the past Draco Malfoy had been known to treathen to tell his father about things so that he could get his way and because Snape had always thought that Potter always got special treatment.

Blaise, who was one of the few who had noticed Snape looking at Pansy first, thought that Snape most likely did realise that Pansy wouldn't be happy with her assigned partner since it would not be her beloved Draco Malfoy. _But Snape also looking at Draco and Potter would mean that he believes that those two will not be happy with their partner either._ _I hope for the two of them that they didn't end up with Goyle and Crabbe._

The real reason why Professor Snape had been looking at the two of them was something else though.

"Also, keep in mind that the room number doesn't give away if the inhabitants have signed up for Altair electives or not, since the pairs receive randomly one of the thirty-nine available rooms." Here, Professor Snape looked at Ron because the story of how he badmouthed the Altair electives at the end of last year had reached his ears. "Contrary to what some of you seem to believe, a low room number does not mean that the pair sharing the room has registered for Altair electives."

"I wonder why some believe this?" Harry asked Hermione in a whisper.

"The rumour is most likely based on the famous Room Zero. In_ 'Hogwarts: A History – adult version' _a whole paragraph is dedicated to it. Only rarely is the room assigned to anyone, and if it is, then it is certain that the pair sharing this room is highly compatible and therefore powerful in the art of sexual magic and obviously have applied for Altair electives. It is designed especially for the needs of such a powerful pairing. The last time someone lived in this room was over one hundred fifty years ago. But to answer your question, since only people who take Altair courses get assigned to Room Zero, some believe that all the lower numbered rooms are reserved for those who take Altair electives, which isn't the truth at all. But, still, Professor Snape's previous comment isn't quite correct, since every room, _except_ Room Zero, doesn't give away if the pair living in it is taking Altair courses."

"Now, if Miss Granger is quite finish quoting '_Hogwarts: A History'_, I would like to start announcing the rooming arrangements for this year," Professor Snape said in a snappish tone towards Hermione. "The partners are assigned as followed..." he began while unrolling a parchment similar to the one Professors McGonagall used during the Sorting ceremony. The room grew silence at once, all eager to hear the first pair.

-o-o-o-

It seemed like he was being very kind today because the first pair to be announced was: "Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, Room Twenty-Two."

It was obvious from the relieved sighs some of the others let out that those were the students who have signed up for an Altair course and had found out through their book titles that their partner was male. They were all happy to know that they would not have to perform sexual magic of any kind with one of the two most unattractive boys of their year.

_Thank Merlin that neither of them will be my partner. But I don't think that they have signed up for any of the Altair electives in the first place, _Draco thought. _But from the sigh which escaped from Potter and Granger, they share my sentiment._

_So, Draco and Potter won't be paired with either Crabbe or Goyle. That doesn't explain why Snape was looking at them before_, Blaise wondered.

-o-o-o-

"Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, Room Eight."

"I knew it," both of them said at the same time, hugging each other.

_Knowing those two, I wouldn't be surprised if they signed up for Sexual Divination, and judging by their reaction I think they actually did. _Harry, Hermione, Blaise and Draco all thought the same thing when that pairing was announced.

-o-o-o-

"Michael Corner and Stephen Cornfoot, Room Fifteen."

The two friends from Ravenclaw only smiled at each other when their names were announced.

"See? What did I say, no one did sign up for any of the Altair electives or they would not all have been paired according to their gender," an oblivious Ron said after the third same sex couple was announced, not knowing that the last two pairs had actually signed up for some of the Altair electives.

_How dumb can he be? _Draco asked himself, who was still standing with Blaise near the Golden Trio. _Hasn't he even read the letter McGonagall sent everyone during the summer? It clearly said that same sex pairings are possible if you decide to take up Altair courses. And even if they have not signed up for Altair electives, they would be paired according to the NEWTs classes they have in common, not according to their gender or House affiliation._

Hermione and Harry shared a look which clearly said: "Let him stay left in the dark. It will be better for us in the end."

-o-o-o-

"Morag MacDougal and Zacharias Smith, Room Six."

-o-o-o-

"Neville Longbottom and Ronald Weasley; Room Sixteen."

"See, Ron, everything turned out well. You were worrying to much over this," Hermione told him, glad that he now wouldn't be able to complain about having to share living space with a, as he said, 'Merlin forbid, Slytherin'.

"Thank Merlin," Ron said, relieved.

_Yeah, thank Merlin that I won't have to hear you complain about your room mate for the rest of the year_, both Harry and Hermione thought.

-o-o-o-

"Hermione Granger and Blaise Zabini, Room Three."

"Now, what did I tell you on the train?" Hermione said to Blaise in a joking voice.

"That you are an annoying know-it-all?" Blaise joked back, giving her a wink.

"No, Hermione, you can't be paired with a slimy Slytherin!" Ron said, infuriated. "And stop flirting with him!" A moment later, after Ron realised what his last comment implied, he added in an angry voice: "Hermione, don't tell you broke your promise and signed up for Altair classes behind my back. How could you do this to me?"

When Hermione did not deny his accusation, Ron turned to Harry in the hope that his best friend would help him in chastising Hermione. To his horror, Harry did not look affronted or even surprised about Hermione's new roommate, which made Ron even angrier.

"You knew that she had applied, didn't you?"

An uninterested "And?" was Harry's answer. He did not know why Ron was angry about this, especially, since as far as he knew, Sexual Magic was rather honoured in Wizarding society.

"And? Don't you realise that those electives are all twisted and rotten, just like the Malfoys?"

"Mr. Weasley that will be twenty points from Gryffindor for insulting a fellow student unreasonably, and do shut up," Snape said harshly to stop Ron's complaints. He was more than irritated with Ron's constant badmouthing of such an honoured branch of magic.

-o-o-o-

"Mandy Brocklehurst and Dean Thomas, Room Thirty-four."

-o-o-o-

"Ernie Macmillan and Pansy Parkinson, Room Twenty-one."

"A Hufflepuff!" Pansy screamed, appalled.

Her friend Tracey tried to calm her down with: "Come on, Pansy, at least he is a pureblood."

"But he is a Hufflepuff, and I was sure that I would be paired with Draco!" she said, sending a hopeful look in said person's direction. Draco only gave her a disgusted look in return.

"Miss Parkinson, you very well know that these combinations are final. So, stop complaining so that I can finish announcing the remaining partners," Snape said harshly, still irritated from Ron's earlier outburst.

_Just as I thought. Pansy isn't happy at all with her partner,_ Draco, Blaise and Harry were thinking. Severus Snape was having similar thoughts, only he used 'Miss Parkinson' instead of 'Pansy'.

-o-o-o-

"Millicent Bulstrode and Tracey Davis, Room Eighteen."

… (other nameless pairings) …

-o-o-o-

"Seamus Finnegan and Anthony Goldstein, Room Twenty-five."

_This means my partner will be Potter/Malfoy, _both Harry and Draco thought after everyone but they had been assigned a roommate. Professor Snape confirmed it moments later.

"And at last, Room Zero will be shared by Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter."

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**son of a Death Eater:** Ron's way of saying "Son of a bitch"

**female:** because the entrance is inside a girls' bathroom, a female would be the least suspicious to enter the girls' toilet.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**AN_2:** Sorry for the cliffhanger, but it was always clear that I would end one of the chapters with this announcement. As I said before, the next chapter should be up within a week's time, two at the most. Also, I didn't include every student there is at Hogwarts, but simply picked out some names from the list published under (1) to fill the gaps to not let it seem too short. Also, I hope that I have formatted the partner-assigning part of the chapter so that you could read it without too much trouble.

**Next:** Everyone's reaction to the announcement, especially Harry's and Draco's and what the mysterious Room Zero looks like.

(1) " wiki/ Category:Sorted_in_1991"


	7. Chapter 6 Reactions

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written stuff~, **_~o~ for easier reading (hopefully)

**Rating:** M for sexual themes and language, slash in later chapters

**Betas:** jointheclub and Makoto Sagara

**Update of beta-ed version: **13th August

**AN: **Sorry for the wait. I got side tracked when I got into Pottermore (which is now open to anyone if you are interested) last week, but now the chapter is finally finished and you will know how the students reacted to the previous announcement. Originally, I wanted to include Harry and Draco exploring their room but decided to have two short chapters with a shorter waiting time, instead of one long chapters in a week or two.

**-~-~- Altair -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 6 – Reactions -~-~-**

"**And at last Room Zero will be shared by Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter."**

With this announcement, hell broke loose inside the seventh-year common room:

Some girls from Hufflepuff were talking in excited whispers to each other. They could not really believe that the two hottest guys in Hogwarts were not only sharing a room, but obviously would also engage in sexual activities. It would not be surprising if by tomorrow morning a new rumour had appeared in Hogwarts, declaring that the reason why Draco helped to lure Voldemort into the trap last term was only because of him being in love with Harry, and, therefore, he had wanted to support Harry in any way he could.

Another possible rumour to appear would be that Harry secretly always wanted to date Draco, but was afraid to ask him out, because the war had still been going on at that time, as well as being afraid to come out of the closet so to speak. So, he dated two female seekers, namely Cho Chang and Ginny Weasley, as substitutions, but in the end, they could not replace _the _Draco Malfoy. So, he broke up with them. Also, his new wardrobe was great rumour material, since it could be made out that he bought it to impress Draco.

It also would not be long before the girls from Hufflepuff opened a Harry/Draco-**Yaoi***-Fanclub, which most of the girls from the other 3 houses would likely join and where they would have hour-long discussions about who of the two was the **Seme/Uke*** in the relationship, as well as composing a list of how their differences complement each other, like how Draco's straight blond hair makes a beautiful contrast to Harry's own wild black hair, and that they in general seem to be a mixture of light and dark. In short, let's just say that the majority of the seventh-year girls would definitely dream (aka. fantasize) about Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy that night. ;)

Contrary to the rest of Hogwarts' female population, Pansy Parkinson was unsurprisingly _not_ happy about that pairing, and she announced her disapproval of the pairing to anyone in the room who cared to listen to her squealing: "Not Potter! Draco can't be paired with Potter! They must have made a mistake and mixed up Macmillan with Malfoy since they both start with a 'M'. Potter is far better suited for Macmillian than I am."_ Yes, that must be it, _she thought, secure in her dream that she had come to the right conclusion.

"Professor Snape," she called to get his attention, "could you please check if you haven't mixed up Malfoy with Macmillian, sir?" she asked, full of hope.

Of course the answer was not to Pansy's liking. "I assure you, Miss Parkinson, that I did not confound the names. You'd better accept your roommate soon, if you do not want to fail your classes."

"No, the names must be mixed up! There is no way that I would not be partnered with Draco," Pansy exclaimed.

"How often do I have to remind you that the announced combinations are final? And if you had read the Altair letter attentively, you should have been aware that anyone out of your classmates could become your partner," Severus Snape said annoyed, asking himself: W_hy can't that girl accept that Draco won't be her partner?_

Before Professor Snape could become even more irritated and start to take points away from his own house, Pansy's friend, Tracey, tried her best again to calm the girl down, leading her away from Snape and over towards one of the sofas.

~o~

Hermione, on the other hand, was very excited about the announcement. She gave Harry a big hug, talking rapidly. "Oh, Harry, this is so wonderful! I can't believe that you got assigned to Room Zero. You must let me have a look inside your room some time, since '_Hogwarts: A History'_ doesn't give away any information about the room's design. I can't wait to find out how it looks like and what makes it so special."

Harry himself was too shocked to react to anything Hermione said. He did not even hug her back. That was how shocked he was. He was only a little shocked that Draco had become his partner, not because it was Draco, but because in the train they had all joked about ending up together. _And now who did we end up partnered with? _Harry thought, positively shocked and amused at the same time about the course of his fate.

The main cause for his shock was something else though. Harry could not believe that of all the rooms, he would get assigned to Room Zero, of which existence and significance he did not even knew about half an hour ago. That he would be so lucky to not only receive a male partner, but to have someone with whom he is supposed to be highly compatible and therefore would hopefully be able to brew the **Shërim Mendjen***. This thought made Harry unconsciously smile.

"You must be so happy. Being assigned to Room Zero will allow you to try to brew the Shërim Mendjen. You are so lucky, Harry" Hermione went on, after she had finished hugging him.

Hermione voicing his own thoughts brought Harry out of his shock. When he came back to the present, he finally noticed that his fellow classmates were already busy talking about him and Malfoy, coming up with the strangest things. Hearing the whispers, he realised that maybe having gotten assigned to Room Zero was not as fortunate as he at first thought it was, because now all of them would know that he was taking Altair electives and therefore would be sleeping with Draco Malfoy. The smile he had on his face before vanished. _So much for whether you choose Altair electives or not staying a secret. I am lucky indeed._

"I really am happy about this chance to try to brew it, Hermione. And thanks to your previous speech about Room Zero, every single person in this room knows that I take Altair classes," Harry answered her, trying to take the situation with humour. After all the years at Hogwarts, he was now kind of used to people talking about him behind his back. Especially during his second, fourth and fifth years where they were not very kind to him, he had had to learn to get used to all the negative hype about his person.

~o~

To say that Ron was not happy at all with this announcement was an understatement. So, when Harry and Hermione had finished their short talk, he began to make his opinion known to them. "First, you did not tell me that Hermione had signed up for Altair electives, and now I have to find out that you signed up for them yourself! Great friend you are, Harry!" Ron shouted at Harry.

Then, Ron redirected his attention to Hermione, not giving Harry the chance to explain the situation to him. "That is why those two Slytherins came to our compartment before, isn't it? You already knew that you would be paired together," Ron accused them both, but blamed Hermione mostly because, in his opinion, if someone would know beforehand who their partner would be, it would be the know-it-all Hermione.

"How could we have known who our roommate was before it was announced? Must you see everything as a conspiracy against you? The two of them only joined us on the train because Draco and I had some Head Boy/Girl business to clear up. You really need to grow up, Ron," Hermione defended herself, annoyed with Ron's childish behaviour.

_It is a good thing that Hermione broke up with Ron only a short time after they got together_, Harry thought_. Otherwise, Ron most likely would have added some more accusations along the line of 'Sneaky Slytherins stealing his girlfriend'. Although Hermione said at that time that she did not end the relationship to be free to register for Altair subjects, but because Ron was acting childish and immature (which Ron is totally proving right now), I still believe that it was an additional reason for the breakup. I can't imagine Hermione being in a relationship with someone while she is sleeping with someone else to perform Sexual magic, even if no feelings are involved._

"You know what? I am fed up with the both of you. You are as bad as the Slytherins you are paired with," Ron announced angrily, storming over to join his new roommate Neville.

"Somehow, I am reminded of our Fourth Year. Ron being angry with me and quitting our friendship, all the attention and the students talking about me behind my back," Harry said in a sad voice to Hermione. He was sad that Ron could not overcome his prejudice against Slytherins and left him because of such a silly thing as who his new roommate was.

"Let's hope that Ron comes to his senses again. I hope he will realise that he is wrong sooner than in Fourth Year though," was Hermione's answer. She was sad too that Ron was not mature enough to leave the prejudice behind.

~o~

Blaise received the announcement with calm, wondering about Snape's earlier look at the pair. _Maybe Snape wasn't necessarily looking at the two of them before because he thought that they would complain about their assigned partner, but because he couldn't believe that they, of all people considering their history of hostility, would be paired together and be highly compatible at that, to have landed in Room Zero._

_Or maybe not,_ Blaise corrected himself when he looked over at Harry, whose face screamed shock. When he noticed the smile crawling across Harry's face some moments later, he had to correct himself, again. _Maybe Potter is not as much against being paired with Draco than I previously thought. He could have been shocked because of the significant of the room rather than who his partner is,_ Blaise mused.

Belatedly, Blaise remembered that the other Room Zero occupant was standing right beside him. Looking over at the Head Boy, Blaise was not surprised to see that Draco's face did not give away anything. _Jepp, just as I thought Draco has the composed Malfoy mask on._

~o~

Behind the famous Malfoy mask of calm, Draco was astounded and very happy to have gotten Harry as his partner. _Not only was I paired with Potter, but we were actually assigned to the famous Room Zero. I cannot believe my luck. But I have to say that Potter has taken the announcement rather calmly. I would have thought that he would have a small outburst at least, but then we were joking about ending up together on the train, and he was not appalled by the suggestion at that time either. So, maybe we will get along quite well._

_But Weasley seems to make up for a lack of outburst from Potter, judging by his facial expression. Here it goes, _Draco thought, smirking just as Ron started to yell at Harry.

~o~

Severus was not the only teacher who was astonished that those two students had been paired together. All the other Heads of House, as well as the Headmaster, were more than surprised when they heard Severus announcing the last pair of the night. Unlike Severus, they had not known beforehand who the pairings would consist of, not even Minerva McGonagall had known it since Severus was in charge of the whole Altair pairing process and only gave her a list with the names of the students, the courses they would be able to take, the gender of their partner and, occasionally, also which courses they may take too if their partner agreed to take them as well. The news that they are even compatible enough to be in Room Zero resulted in some open mouths from the teachers. It was unfortunate that no one had a camera to take a photo of Minerva with her mouth wide open in surprise.

Dumbledore was the first one of the adults to compose himself so he cast a_ Sonorous_ on himself before saying "Silence!" to shut up all the noise. "As much as I appreciate your joy to hear that we, after over one hundred fifty years, now have another compatible pair assigned to Room Zero, I believe you are all grown up enough to handle this information like adults and will respect the privacy of those two young men. Since you all know your rooms now, off to bed you go. I will see you all early tomorrow morning." With that, he made a shooing motion. And Snape glared at any stragglers to get them all up to their rooms.

Ron did not hesitate to get away from all the 'bad Slytherins' and dragged a helpless Neville up the stairs to room sixteen.

Blaise turned to Hermione and asked her "Shall we go to our room too?" while offering her his arm, which she accepted.

And so, gradually, the common room became empty.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Yaoi:** The Japanese term for slash.

**Seme/Uke: **Japanese again. Seme refers to the dominate partner whereas Uke refers to the submissive one.

**Shërim Mendjen: **Albanian for healing/recovery of the mind, see chapter 1 for further information

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**AN_2: **I hope you had some fun reading about the different reactions to this announcement. ^_^ And I believe that I better stop writing what will come next since half of the time I end up with something else instead because the chapters seem to have a life of their own.

By the way, I opened a poll on my profile page to find out with whom Hermione should end up in the end. It will be open for some months though since this story is far from finished.


	8. Chapter 7 Room Zero

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, _**_~letters and other written stuff~,_**

**Rating:** M for sexual themes and language, slash in later chapters

**Beta:** jointheclub and Makoto Sagara

**Update of beta-ed version:** 14th August

**AN: **Thank you for all your reviews, you are the best ^_^ Also, I am very happy to have nearly 100 story alerts. On a funny note, if the statistics of are to believed about fifteen people have skipped chapter 3.

Also the poll I was talking about in the last chapter finally is on my profile page, silly me forgot to check the box to make it show up on the profile.

Furthermore, this chapter is rather short, but I already told you last time that I decide to have 2 short chapters with a shorter waiting time in-between instead of a long one with a long wait.

But enough said, enjoy the first private moment between our favourite pair when they are exploring Room Zero...

**-~-~- Altair -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 7 – Room Zero -~-~-**

"So," said Draco to break the awkward silence, after the last of his year-mates had gone up the staircase and only he and Harry were still left in the downstairs common room. The teachers had left the room when the announcements were over.

"So," was Harry's meaningful answer. Even if the new clothes had given him more self-confidence and he already had accepted that he would need to get intimate with his partner, he still was rather shy when it came to start anything of this sort.

Draco, having gotten a feeling that Harry would not initiate anything, decided that he would have to take the lead. Therefore, he asked Harry: "Do you want to go upstairs and check out our new room?"

"Why not? So let's go," Harry said, grateful that Draco was taking the lead.

And so, the two of them went up the stairs together, moving towards the last room on the far left side of the balcony.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

When Draco and Harry arrived before the unspectacular door of their room (it being wooden like the other doors they had passed by; the only difference that it had the number zero painted on it instead of a higher number), Draco took the initiative again. With the words: "No reason to avoid the unavoidable. So, let's find out what makes the famous Room Zero so special," Draco opened the door, letting Harry enter the room first before he followed him in and closed the door behind them.

Looking around, they noticed that they were currently standing in a small beige coloured hallway, which had three **maple*** doors altogether. Through one of them, they had just entered the hallway they were currently standing in and the other two doors were opposite each other to the left and right of the entrance door, about three meters down the corridor. On the far wall, opposite the entrance door, was a brass clothes rack as well as a maple sideboard. All in all, the room radiated a nice, warm and welcoming feeling.

"Nothing special about this. It looks like the layout of the usual rooms Snape described at the end of last term. Since we are taking Altair classes, one of those doors must lead into the bedroom and the other one would lead into the special Altair room," Harry said, finding the light colour scheme of the room calming and inviting, making him feel comfortable enough to take the lead this time around.

"Hmm", Draco voiced in agreement to Harry's statement. He too rather liked the design of the room. "So, left or right first?" Draco asked Harry.

"Right," Harry said while going over to open the door on the right side.

Inside, they found a rectangular sitting room decorated in green and black. Opposite the door was a big window, which also had a comfy dark green window seat. The whole left wall was covered with **bog oak*** bookcases, which were separated in the middle of the wall by a fireplace. Before the fireplace was a coffee table, also made of bog oak, as well as two black comfy chairs and a black sofa with green pillows were arranged. On the right side of the room, near the door, was a small kitchen area and further inside the room was a dining table by a second window. Over all, the room looked rather comfy with Slytherin touches in the colour scheme because of the bog oak furniture and the green walls, sofa pillows and curtains.

"Nice, I did not know that you got your own kitchen and fireplace. But since this is neither the special Altair room nor the bedroom, I wonder where we will be sleeping and performing Sexual magic," Draco stated, a bit worried, but nevertheless finding the room to his liking. He had always loved a good mixture of black and green.

"It is not as bright as the hallway, but even if the room has a Slytherin colour scheme it is not as gloomy as the Slytherin common room," Harry commented.

"How do you know how the Slytherin common room looks like?" Draco asked, interested in spite of himself.

"That is my secret, but the room is still lovely, especially the view from the window," Harry said, having walked over to the window with the window seat while Draco had gone over to the bookcases. "I am worried about the lack of a bedroom though. As comfortable as the couch looks, I still prefer to sleep in a real bed."

"Me too. Maybe being assigned to Room Zero means that we do not need a special room to perform sexual magic in?" Draco said jokingly. "At least we have some interesting Ritual Magic books here," Draco said, pointing at some books on the shelves whose titles he had been reading with interest, taking one of them out from the shelf to look through it.

While yawning, Harry stepped away from the window over towards Draco, saying: "I am getting rather tired. Come on; let's see if we find a bedroom behind the other door"

When Draco did not make any indication that he would start moving soon, Harry took the book out of Draco's hand and placed the book back onto the shelf, before taking Draco's hand and dragging him out of the room with him. Neither of them had noticed that the door was not made of maple, as it should have been, but of bog oak instead when they went through it from the living room.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

To their mutual relief, behind the second door was a bedroom.

"Puh, now I'm relieved," Harry said when he saw the **big four poster bed* **made of** purpleheart wood*** by the right wall of the room. Both the headboard and the footplate looked similar to a Gothic window. The drapes were made of a dark red velvet. And on either side of the bed was a bedside table also made of purpleheart.

Harry rather liked the Gryffindor colour scheme of the room, especially since the other room was designed in a Slytherin theme. Draco was fonder of the headboard and the footplate since they were ideal for tying someone up with all the struts they had. He already did imagine how it would look like if he would tie up Harry there with their neckties.

There was also a big window opposite the entrance, spanning nearly over the whole wall. On the left was a long sturdy table, which was usually found inside a potions classroom.

"This table must be for brewing sexual potions," Draco said pointing at said table along the left wall.

"Seems like it, even if I would have preferred to not have it placed inside the bedroom," Harry said, not happy at all to have to sleep in a room which reminded him of the potions classroom.

"I wonder where the other doors lead to, since there shouldn't have been any additional rooms," Draco wondered aloud, having noticed three other maple doors inside the room while looking around.

"There is only one way to find out," Harry said, going over to the door to the left of the entrance door.

"Cool, we have our own bathroom. Even if the bathtub is not as big as the prefect one, it is still rather spacious," Harry said after he stepped inside the room.

"And I thought that we would still be using the common bathrooms in our house dorms, since this is what Snape had told me when I've asked him about it. This must be a special feature of Room Zero. And I believe that I better not ask how you, a non-prefect and non-Slytherin, not only know how the Slytherin common room looks like, but also how big the prefects' bathtub is," said Draco when he joined Harry inside the spacious bathroom, which did not only contain the before mentioned big bathtub but also a shower, with enough room for four people, as well as a toilet and a sink made for two people.

_Now, this is a shower ideal to have shower sex in. It's no wonder that they would place something like this inside Room Zero. It makes a great place for foreplay and other stuff, _Draco thought, not knowing that Harry came to a similar conclusion regarding the existence of the private bathroom in general and the shower especially. It was a miracle that neither of them was given away by their blushing faces, but then both of them were lost in their own thoughts.

"Or it could be because you are Head Boy. I will have to ask Hermione tomorrow morning if she has gotten her own bathroom too," Harry said trying to think of another explanation for them to have their own bathroom, not trying to deny his previous thought of bathroom sex.

"For whatever reason we got it, I am glad that we have it. It is so much better than to walk up all the stairs to the prefect bathroom, only to take a bath. This way we can save time," commented Draco, meaning it, but also conveniently leaving out the fact that he was also glad of the sexual opportunities the private bathroom offered.

After a last wanton look at the shower, Draco walked out of the room, going to the next door inside the bedroom, which happened to be the one to the left side of the bedroom entrance.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"Great, a walk-in closet. Finally, I won't have to leave half of my clothes inside the trunk because there isn't enough space to take them all out," Draco exclaimed happily when he inspected the small room behind the second door.

"And what about my stuff?" Harry asked, walking out of the bathroom after he heard Draco's exclamation.

"They are already in here. So don't worry. See on the right side, those must be yours, since I do not own so much violet and green," Draco said, pointing at the side which held Harry's clothing.

"Yeah, they are mine", Harry said, looking over Draco's shoulder into the walk-in closet.

"Since we are already talking about clothes, does us being paired together mean that I will be seeing the underwear Lovegood picked out with my help for you, in person?", Draco asked in a teasing voice. He just could not resist teasing Harry about it, after he had overcome the initial shock that _the_ Luna Lovegood had tricked him into choosing _Harry Potter's_ new underwear.

Harry turned even redder than he had some hours before on the train, when he remembered that bit of information about his new wardrobe during his talk with Blaise, but decided to answer Draco's question anyway. "It seems like it," he said in a low, shy voice.

Draco only laughed, finding Harry's red face cute and walked over to the last door, which was on the right side of the room, near the corner away from the window.

"So, the last door most likely leads to the special Altair room"

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

The special Altair room had a hexagonal shape, made out of stone, and gave off a dungeon-like atmosphere, which was increased by the lack of natural light since only some torches illuminated the room. The shackles on the right corner only added to the dungeon feeling. In the left corner, there were shelves filled with various sexual toys, for them to be used during Sexual Potions or Ritual Magic. On the ground, in the middle of the room, was a hexagonal ornamental border, which spanned about the size of a swimming pool.

"I gather that we may need those shackles for some of the rituals, even if I personally would prefer not to use them," Draco commented, not liking the feeling the room gave off. It reminded him too much of Voldemort.

"I agree, but at least it seems like we won't need to buy any additional equipment since the shelves are full of them already," was Harry's answer. He too did not like the room much at all and wanted to leave it as soon as possible to go to sleep instead, having gotten even more tired during the exploring of their rooms.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

After both Harry and Draco took their turn in the bathroom and had changed into their sleepwear (boxers and a t-shirt), they walked over to the bed.

Harry, having gone into the bathroom first, was already standing near the right side of the bed. While he was lifting the dark red bedcover, Harry told Draco: "I never would have thought that we would end up together. We were only joking around when we mentioned it on the train."

"Me neither, but how goes the saying 'Opposites attracts'. And it is not like I am not happy to have gotten you as my partner," Draco honestly told Harry.

"Thanks, I am rather glad to have ended up with you too," Harry said in answer, starting to crawl into the bed.

Truth to be told, he was very happy that Draco was his partner, not only because they were very compatible according to their assigned room, but because Draco Malfoy never had been someone who had worshipped him. He had not been friendly to him either: but at least, to Harry, it felt like Draco had not engaged him in fights because he was the Boy Who Lived, but because he had refused Draco's hand of friendship at the beginning of their first year and Draco had still been angry about this.

Harry did not know what he would have done if his partner had turned out to be a hero-worshipper. So, he was really happy that Draco was his partner, even if they had a history to overcome. Since after the war both of them had grown up and ceased to constantly fight, Harry was rather hopeful that they would be able to become friends.

Suddenly, Harry let out a shriek.

Draco had been looking out of the window but when he had heard Harry unexpectedly shrieking, his head had turned around from the window to look at Harry.

"What is wrong?" he asked his new room-mate, not seeing what had made Harry shriek.

"My clothes just vanished."

"Your clothes vanished?" Draco asked unbelievingly but noticed that Harry was hiding his body with the bedcovers.

"Yeah, when I got into the bed, they disappeared."

"Try getting out of it again and see if they return," Draco suggested, having a feeling that the spell was placed on the bed and would not affect you outside of it any more, before he turned around to give Harry some privacy. Even if they would have sex soon, he knew that Harry would prefer to not be naked around him before that time.

When Harry announced, "Oh, they're back," Draco turned around again.

"It seems like you have found the catch to the famous Room Zero. No clothing allowed while being in the bed. It could have been worse."

"Yeah," was Harry's answer as he crawled back into the bed, preparing to go to sleep. Draco joined him soon after, taking care to leave enough space between them, since he too was affected by the magic of the bed and therefore was naked under the covers as well.

"Good night, Malfoy," Harry said snuggling into his pillow, trying to get comfortable. The sudden lack of sleepwear did make him feel a bit uncomfortable since he was not used at all to sleeping in the nude.

"I think that we should start calling each other by our first names, don't you? So, good night, _Harry,_" Draco said, not only wanting to leave the old days of name calling and hexing, which were in his mind connected to their surnames, behind, but also wanting to become better acquainted with Harry, so that soon, when they would not simply be sleeping together in this bed, they would not have a wall between them.

"Yeah, G'night, _Draco,_" was Harry's sleepy response, after he finally had found a comfortable sleeping position.

And with that, they both fell asleep.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**woods used in this story:** if you are interested in the colouring look up the wood types here: www. Schreibgeraete-manufaktur. de/ shop/images/Holzarten%201. jpg (erase spaces)

**picture of the bed: it's metal here though: **www. Knockomie. co. uk /userfiles/image/big/the%20benromach%20four%20post er%20room. Jpg (erase spaces)

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN_2: ** I hope you liked this chapter and the little fun I had, with the bed not allowing them to wear any clothes. Also I hope that you noticed that Harry was touching Draco quite a bit.

**Next (?):** First Altair lesson, a bit of Ron and morning woods but I can't promise it since the chapters have a life of their own. So maybe I will only come as far as breakfast, who knows?


	9. Chapter 8 New schedules and old friends

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide: **"Talk", Thoughts, ~letters and other written stuff~

**Rating: **M for sexual themes and language, slash in later chapters

**Betas:** jointheclub and Makoto Sagara

**Update of beta-ed version:** 19h July

**AN: **Thank you for the new reviews, alerts and favourites ^_^

**-~-~- Altair -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- chapter 8 – New schedules and old friends -~-~-**

**Tuesday, 2nd September 1997, Room Zero**

When Harry started to wake after his first night spent in Room Zero, he was not aware at first that the comfy warm pillow he was snuggling into, in the hopes of returning to sleep, was actually the chest of his new roommate and Altair partner, Draco Malfoy, with whom he was currently sharing the purpleheart wooden bed he was sleeping in.

Getting nearer to wakefulness, Harry noticed that his very comfy pillow was accompanied by a steady rhythmical sound, which he found rather calming. Not fully awake, he did not recognise the sound as a steady beating heart. Only some moments later did he notice that his pillow was actually rising up and down too. _Just like the chest of a breathing person,_ Harry thought. Finally realising that his pillow was actually in reality not a pillow at all but the male human chest of his bed partner, he shot open his eyes.

After some calming breaths, Harry took in his current situation. His head was laying on Draco's chest right where the other boy's heart was. _That explains the calming sound from before_, Harry thought. His left hand was also placed on Draco's chest but on the right. His other hand lay on a pillow somewhere over Draco's left shoulder. Harry also noticed that both of their legs were intertwined and that Draco had his left arm draped around his waist. _We both must have moved towards each other sometime during the night, _he mused, since instead of sleeping on either side of the bed, they were now laying in the middle of the bed. _At least Malfoy won't be able to lay the whole blame on me since he moved towards me too._

Looking up at Draco, Harry noticed with relief that Draco thankfully was still asleep, since Harry's morning erection was currently pressing into Draco's left thigh, whereas Draco's arousal was pressed against Harry's hip.

_Being cuddled together would have been bad enough on its own, being so close to each other. With both of us currently sporting morning wood, it does not help the matter at all. And to top the situation because of this nice little spell which was placed on our bed, both of us are also naked under the covers, making the situation even worse,_ he thought.

These thoughts led to Harry letting out an annoyed "Argh", not knowing that this exclamation woke up a previously sleeping Draco. Therefore, he had worsened his current situation even more, making it impossible to quietly crawl out of the bed before his bed partner would wake up.

Since Harry had not noticed that Draco was awake now, he was surprised when Draco greeted him with a drowsy "Good morning, Harry", since Draco was not completely awake yet. Surprised and embarrassed, Harry only muffled a "Morning" in return, trying to hide his rather red face in Draco's chest, like one would have done if it actually had been a pillow.

"Is there a reason why you are cuddling into my chest?" Draco asked Harry in a teasing voice.

"Uhm, no?" Harry more asked than said, not able to look at Draco's face but stopped cuddling his chest at least.

"Okay," Draco simply said, starting to move a bit to get out of bed and ready for the day of classes. Only then did he realise that they not only were cuddled up, by which he was not bothered at all, but that they also were sporting a morning erection each. S_o, this must be the reason why he seems rather embarrassed_, Draco thought.

Wanting to make Harry feel at ease around him, he said to the other boy: "Don't tell me you are embarrassed because of our morning erections? It is only natural for us to have them. So don't worry about it. I don't." When Harry still seemed to be uncomfortable, he continued. "Come on, Harry. It could be worse. Imagine if you'd been paired with a girl instead. This way, we at least are in the same predicament."

"Urgh, this really would be worse," Harry answered, finally calmed down a bit after waking up erected in the arms of Draco Malfoy and was now able to look Draco in the eyes. Harry thought about what would have happened if he had been paired with someone like Cho Chang. _Most likely they would believe that I would have been turned on by them and would want to rape them or something as ludicrous as that, and then, they would have begun to cry. Or I could have ended up with one of the terrifying fangirls, and they would have seen it as a sign to try to force me into something I did not want instead, _he thought with a shudder.

"So, can I get up now?" Draco asked jokingly. When Harry did not start moving right away, he added: "Or do you want me to help you get rid of your problem first?" He gave Harry a wink.

That made Harry move, fast. Letting out a hasty "No", he immediately got up from Draco's chest and moved over to his side of the bed, watching as Draco stretched a bit before he left the bed to go to the bathroom. His sleep wear from yesterday was back on him as soon as he had left the bed.

While Draco was safely away in the bathroom, Harry decided to get rid of his morning erection. _I would prefer a good wank, but I can't risk Malfoy walking in on me. That would just be so embarrassing, especially after what happened some minutes ago._ _So, I need to imagine how McGonagall would look in a bikini to solve that problem. I wonder if Draco is wanking in the shower right now, _Harry mused, his cheeks turning a nice shade of red at the thought.

Getting up from the bed, Harry walked over to the walk-in closet to pick out his clothes for the day. Since it was a school day, there was not much to decide on, so Harry simply grabbed a clean uniform and cloak, as well as the first pair of briefs and socks he found. When he went back to the bedroom, Harry noticed that on his bedside table lay a scroll of parchment. Looking over at Draco's side of the bed. he saw that Draco had received a similar paper.

Throwing his clothes down on the bed, Harry was surprised that they did not vanish as soon as they touched the bed. _The spell must only take effect when someone is wearing the clothes. Otherwise, the bedcover would not be able to stay on the bed. Maybe..._ Harry wondered, taking a quick look at the bathroom door to make sure that Draco was still in there before he sat down on the bed, his feet still touching the ground. And just like he had thought, his clothes were thankfully still there.

Checking if his other thought was also right, he, testing the waters, lifted up both of his feet. _Still clothed. _Then, he placed them both on the bed, and that was when his clothes vanished. _So as long as my feet aren't on the bed, my clothes won't vanish. Good to know._ Setting down his feet on the ground once again, his clothes returned and he finally picked up the scroll of parchment that still lay on his bedside table.

When he unrolled the parchment, he heard the bathroom door open and looked over, only to see Draco walking towards the closet clad solely in a towel. _Draco is really rather fit. The one year's abstinence from Quidditch didn't hurt his figure at all. He is still as muscular (not too muscular, mind you) as during his time of Quidditch , _Harry thought_. _Noticing that he had been staring at Draco's nearly naked body, Harry shook his head and forced his eyes back to the parchment in his hands.

It had his name, house, grade, as well as the current school year at the top and was followed by the usual class schedule _(AN: their complete schedules can be found at the end of the chapter, just scroll down)_ he had gotten in the previous years, the only difference being that this schedule also included his chosen Altair electives.

"Uhm, Mal-Draco, do you know why we have our new schedules delivered to us already? If I remember correctly, all of the seventh-years have always received their schedules on the first day of classes in the Great Hall like the rest of us," Harry asked him, remembering a bit too late that they had agreed last night to start calling each other by their first names.

Draco, who was buttoning his shirt, walked out of the walk-in-closet and answered Harry: "I guess that the schedules they hand out in the Great Hall are only a disguise, so that not only the younger years do not notice that anything strange is going on, but also to protect the anonymity of those of us who are taking Altair electives. The schedules we will receive later most likely won't have our Altair courses on it."

"Not that this is a great help in our case. Really, out of all the thirty-nine rooms, we had to get assigned to the only one that screams to everyone: **'The occupants of this room are taking Sexual Magic classes. Please make their life a living hell'**".

"Come on, at least the spell Professor Black casted prevents them from announcing it to the whole school, or even the _Prophet_," Draco said to lighten the mood.

"True. So, what other classes are you taking beside the electives we have in common?" Harry asked Draco to get his mind away from overthinking the situation and worrying about it too much. _It is not like I can change the fact that I am assigned to Room Zero anyway. And better being compatible enough to have been assigned to this room and to hopefully __be able to brew the __**Shërim Mendjen***_ _than not having gotten a compatible partner at all._

Having finished buttoning his shirt, Draco walked over to his bedside table to pick up his schedule while he started to answer Harry's question. "I am also taking DADA, Potions, Herbology, Charms, Runes and Arithmancy. I would have liked to also take Warding but, unfortunately, you chose neither Ancient Runes nor Arithmancy as electives."

"I would have applied for Warding too, if could. I don't know why I took such a useless elective as Divination in the first place. Warding really sounded interesting. But I hope that some of it can be achieved with Ritual Magic."

"You really are lucky then that only one of us needs to have gotten an OWL in Runes for us to be able to take this one, otherwise we would have ended up with Sexual Potions and Basic only."

Having finished reading his new schedule, Harry said, "It seems like in the end Ron being mad at me has its advantage too. I would not have known how to explain to him that I won't be able to do anything with him today even if my faked schedule says that I don't have any classes at all on Tuesdays."

"I think even Weasley would have figured out that you most likely would have to be in one of the Altair classes, with us being assigned to Room Zero and all."

"Good point," Harry said ,now cheered up and smiling at Draco.

Having finished dressing and with Harry in a better mood, Draco took his bag and walked towards the door. "I will go on ahead. We will have to leave through our common rooms anyway. Besides, I have Runes at a quarter to ten today before we have Basic Trance-sexual Magic in the third period. See you then," he said in parting before he left the room.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

After Harry had taken a shower and was dressed for the day, he went down to the Altair common room, where to his surprise Hermione and Ron were sitting near each other without fighting.

Walking over, he greeted his two friends carefully, not sure if Ron would start another of his rants.

"Good morning," Hermione greeted him with a big smile on her face.

"Morning," said Ron looking nervous. After Hermione gave him a little nudge, Ron went on. "Ehm, yeah. Listen, Harry, I want to apologize for my behaviour yesterday. It was not right of me to scream at you only because you decided to sign up for Altair electives. It is your own choice if you want to take them, even if you had to end up with Malfoy of all people."

Not wanting to have Ron mad at him any longer than necessary, Harry decided to accept the apology. Nevertheless, he had to ask: "Apology accepted. But what brought about the sudden change?"

"Uhm, Neville talked to me yesterday and made me realise that I was unfair to the both of you."

"Okay," Harry said unbelievingly. _I would like to know how Neville was able to calm down Ron this fast. Normally it takes days, if not weeks for Ron to cool down again._

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Flashback, the night before in Ron's and Neville's room**

"I can't believe that those two rats signed up for Altair electives behind my back," Ron complained loudly when he entered Room Sixteen. "No, Ron, I'm not breaking up with you so that I will be free to take sexual magic classes," he said in a high voice, trying to imitate Hermione and failing rather badly.

"As if; the bitch even seems to be happy to be paired with that _Slytherin_ _Zabini._" Ron made both Slytherin and Zabini sound like a very bad insult. "I bet she already knew that he would be her partner, or why else would they be together on the train? And Harry is no better. I thought he was my friend, but what does he do? He pairs up with Malfoy of all people. I had thought that he was happy that I and Hermione got together."

Neville, who had entered the room together with Ron and had no choice but to listen to Ron's loud rant, got the feeling that Ron was not so mad about the fact that both of his friends had signed up for Altair electives, but that he rather still was not over his breakup from Hermione and was blinded by jealousy.

Wanting to calm Ron down and see reason, he got up his Gryffindor courage and said in a calm, gentle voice: "Uhm, Ron? Could it be that you are maybe not really angry about them having signed up for Altair electives but are more upset the fact that Hermione broke up with you? At least, it seems like that to me."

"Of course I am still upset about the breakup!" Ron screamed at poor Neville. "Really, why could she not have done as I said and forgot about the whole sexual magic thing and stay together with me?" he asked rhetorically. Nevertheless, Neville still answered him.

"Come on, Ron, you know better than I that Hermione would never be able to say 'No' to a chance to learn a new kind of magic. It isn't in her nature to do so. And you do not even know if Zabini really is her Altair partner. With how many subjects Hermione is taking, it would not surprise me if those two simply could have the most classes in common. As far as I know, Zabini is taking about eight NEWTs classes. Hermione takes as many as him, doesn't she?"

When Ron nodded his head, he continued. "So, most likely, they are simply sharing a room because they have the same amount of classes. The rooms are assigned by compatible schedules, so it is not surprising that they are sharing a room."

"That could be it, but why did she still break up with me then?" Ron's voice picked up in volume and got more irritated the more he spoke.

"I don't know. Maybe she had applied for Altair electives and didn't want to cheat on you or she simply wanted to concentrate on her NEWTs without any distractions. You know how important school is to her," Neville said, trying his best to keep Ron fairly calm. "I would not be surprised if she will get back together with you after the exams are finished," Neville continued. He actually did not believe what he just said, but if it helped to soothe Ron's temper, he was not above lying - especially if he had to live with that person for the next year. Even if both of them had their own little room, they would be spending some time together.

When Ron heard the last part, his face instantly changed into a happy expression, nevertheless he had to ask: "Do you really think that?"

"Yes, Ron, I do," Neville lied, happy that Ron seemed to be that naive.

Calmed down now and feeling hopeful, Ron asked as an afterthought "And why then did Harry break up with Ginny? It can't be for the same reason as Hermione. He is not such a study-freak as her. Ginny tried to hide her sadness rather well, but I bet she was heartbroken about their breakup"

"Oh, Ron, Ginny was not sorry at all about their breakup. Neither was Harry actually. Ginny told me herself that both of them came to realise that they loved each other more like brother and sister than lovers. So it was a good thing that they had not done more than hand holding and small kisses."

"She really told you that?" Ron asked disbelievingly.

"Yes, she did."

"Maybe I should apologize to them. But Harry had not told me that he had signed up for Altair electives."

"Come on, Ron, you can't really be mad about this. If I was better in Potions, I would have signed up for Sexual Potions myself. You know, there is this Potion, Shërim something, which can cure the after-effects of the Cruciatus. Both Hermione and Harry were asking me about one of the ingredients of this potion shortly after the war. I would not be surprised if both of them tried to get into Sexual Potions because of this potion. Harry especially seemed rather interested in this one," Neville said, remembering their discussion.

"That sounds like something Harry would do. He can't seem to get rid of his saving-people-thing. So, I guess I better apologize to them tomorrow morning"

"That would be the right thing to do. Good night, Ron." With this, Neville moved away from Ron to his own bedroom on the left side of the hallway.

"Night," Ron answered, already deep in thought. It was a long time before Ron fell asleep that night with all the thinking he had done.

**End Flashback**

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"Great, let's go to breakfast then," Ron exclaimed, getting up from his place on the sofa next to Hermione. Walking over to the male Gryffindor door, he continued speaking. "See you in the Gryffindor common room, Hermione."

After Harry had started to follow Ron through the door his friend had left the room just now, he remembered that he had wanted to ask Hermione if she had also received her own bathroom. Seeing that he would not get a better opportunity to ask this question, considering that the room was currently empty and that there would not be anyone under seventeen around to prevent him from speaking about something related to the Altair, Harry turned around and called Hermione back.

"Hermione!"

"Yes, Harry?" she said, stopping and turning around to face him too.

"I forgot that I wanted to ask you something," Harry said and started walking towards Hermione so that he did not have to shout through half of the room. "Did you by chance receive your own bathroom?"

"No, I am still using the common one in the tower. Why do you ask?"

"Uhm, me and Draco got our own bathroom, and I thought that it had something to do with him being Head Boy. So, I assumed that you too got one of your own," Harry admitted reluctantly. "Must have something to do with it being Room Zero then."

"No wonder neither me nor Ron saw you going down to use the bathroom before, if you have one up there. You really must let me have a look at your room later."

"I will have to ask Draco about it first. It is his room too." _And I do not really want you to see the hexagonal dungeon room or, heaven forbid, find out about the spell placed on the bed. That would just be too embarrassing,_ Harry thought.

"Alright," she said. Taking a look at her wristwatch and realising that it was already after eight o'clock, she said to Harry: "We better get going. My first class starts fifteen minutes earlier so I have to be there at 8:45. And it is already three minutes after eight o'clock." With that, she hurriedly walked over to the female Gryffindor door, leaving Harry standing alone in the Altair common room.

_At least Draco and I weren't the only ones to receive our schedule early. Somehow, I don't believe that Hermione even has a free period this year if one of her classes needed to be __**scheduled early***__. But considering that last year she only had six free periods altogether, and Basic already takes up three of them, I should be more surprised that she doesn't need a Time-Turner again._ With these thoughts, Harry slowly walked towards the Great Hall. Since his first lesson of the day was at a quarter to eleven, he had no reason to hurry like Hermione.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Shërim Mendjen: **Albanian for healing/recovery of the mind, see chapter 1 for further information

**scheduled early: **As you will see below between the first and second as well as between the fourth and fifth period there is not a break in-between them to change rooms, since they are designed to be double periods. Hermione, because of her full schedule, has two single periods at that time and therefore her first class must start early so that she will be on time for her second class.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Here is their schedule. I hope the formation is all right and that you can figure at the abbreviations for some of the subjects on your own. If D or H is written behind a subject than that means that only Harry or Draco is taking this subject. As it is a Tuesday, next chapter will have two of the Altair electives or at least one.

**Time. . . . . . . .** **Monday ** . . . **Tuesday** . . . **Wednesday ** . . .**Thursday** . . . .**Friday**

**9:00-9:45** . . .**Trans. (H)** ** . .Free** . . . . . . **Potions ** . . . . .. . **Runes (D) ** . . . **Herbology**

**9:45-10:30 . .Trans. (H) .** **Runes (D) ** . . **Potions . . . . . .** **Runes (D). . . . ** **Herbology**

**10:45-11:30** **Herbology** . . **Basic ** . . . . . . **Sex. Pot. ** . . . . . .**Arithm. (D)** . . **Potions**

**12:30-13:15 ** **Charms** . . . .**Free** . .. . . . . .**DADA . . . . . . . . ** **Basic . . . . . . .** **Arithm. (D)**

**13:15-14:00** **Charms** . . . .** Free . . . . . . .** **DADA ** . . . . . .. . .**Basic . . . . . . . ** **Arithm. (D)**

**14:15-15:00** **DADA** . . . . .. **Ritual ** . . . . . .**Charms . . . . . .** **Trans. (H)** . . . .**Free**

**AN_2: **If you were wondering why I included Ron's talk with Neville, it is because I plan for Ron to grow up during this fic. As you have noticed he still is immature.

**Next chapter:** Meet the professors Greige


	10. Ch 9 The first Basic Ts magic lesson

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, _**_~letters and other written stuff~_**

**Rating:** M for sexual themes and language, slash in later chapters

**Warnings:** Mentioning of a BDSM relationship, no details though. Also. mentioning of sexual acts, no details there either, sorry. The first lemon is still about 3-5 chapters away, it will happen on Saturday in this story, so we still have a week of classes to go through.

**Beta:** jointheclub and Makoto Sagara

**Update of beta-ed version:** 25th August

**AN: **Here is another chapter not even a week after the last update. It may be a bit short but it is better than nothing, isn't it?

Also thank you for all the reviews and favourites and alerts. You are the best.

**-~-~- Altair -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 9 – the first Basic Trance-sexual Magic lesson -~-~-**

Harry Potter walked hurriedly towards a classroom in the south wing of the fifth floor. Before today, he had not known that this part of the castle had another corridor. He had not even noticed this corridor on the Marauders' Map before today. _The spell cast by Altair Black must be very strong if it not only prevents under-aged students from noticing this corridor but also avoids the corridor from being shown on the map, _Harry thought.

When Harry finally walked into the classroom where his first Basic Trance-sexual Magic lesson was to take place, with only three minutes to spare thanks to the previously unknown location, he was surprised to see that Hermione was amiably talking with both Draco and Blaise. _They must have walked here together, with both Hermione and Draco taking Ancient Runes. But the room is rather full, considering that there are only about forty people in our year and about twenty people seem to be in here, about half of them must have signed up for Altair electives,_ he thought.

Walking over to the threesome, Harry settled down next to Draco in the second row of benches behind Hermione, who sat with Blaise in the first row. Since the three of them seemed to be discussing something from their Ancient Runes class, Harry decided to look around the room to see who was taking this class.

He was not surprised to see both Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil sitting together near the back of the room, zealously discussing a deck of tarot cards. Neither was he surprised to find Ernie Macmillan and Pansy Parkinson sitting together at one desk, if you could call it that, since Parkinson was trying her best to sit as far away from Macmillan as possible, a scowl firmly set on her face. Pansy's reaction yesterday evening had made it clear that she had applied for Altair electives and had been assigned a male partner and wrongly assumed that he would be Draco. Therefore, she still was mad about having ended up with someone other than her beloved Draco.

Letting his eyes roam the room further, Harry spotted Mandy Brocklehurst and Dean Thomas. _Now, that is a surprise. I wouldn't have thought that Mandy had the courage to sign up for Altair electives. She always seemed so shy and insecure,_ Harry thought. He spotted Mandy's two Ravenclaw house mates, Stephen Cornfoot and Michael Corner, to her right holding hands. Stephen even had placed his head on Michael's shoulder, giving the impression that the two of them must have been a couple before they were paired for the Altair electives. Not having realised that he had said the last part out loud, he was surprised when Draco told him, "They were. I believe that they got together sometime during fifth year."

"Cute, aren't they?" Hermione asked Harry.

Fortunately for Harry, he was saved from answering this tricky question when the teachers walked in to start the lesson. Yes, plural teachers since both a man and a woman walked into the room. The woman walking into the room behind the man.

"Good morning, everyone. I am glad to see that you all are already sitting together with your partner. I am Professor **Angus Greige***," the middle-aged, rather tall, brown-haired man said, wearing leather trousers and a black shirt under his open green robes. Pointing towards the dark blonde haired woman with a French braid, who was standing behind him, he continued, "And this is my wife and submissive, **Colleen***. You will be respectful to her and address her with 'Professor Colleen'."

When he saw them nod, he went on, "I am sure that you are wondering why two professors will be teaching this class. The reason is very simple. Since the aim of this class is to teach you the basic of Sexual Magic, it only stands to reason that you will need an attachment figure for either gender, since some things you need to have experienced yourself to be truly able to understand what you are talking about. Therefore, I will be doing most of the teaching, explaining to you the general and theoretical aspects of Sexual Magic, as well as the parts specifically concerning the male body, whereas Professor Colleen will lecture about the female body at certain times.

"The same gender couples are at an advantage here. They will be allowed to miss those rare classes which solely concern the other gender, since they won't need this information for their own practice, but you are free to attend them anyway if any of you plan to get a different partner after graduation."

Surprisingly, or maybe not considering that some of the boys were definitely gay, whereas there were no lesbians in the classroom, mostly only the males where happy about being able to skip hearing about the other gender if they didn't have to, they seemed to still be scared about PMS or the monthly period itself. Harry, Draco and the two male Ravenclaw love-birds were no exception to this.

"Since for most of you this will be the first Altair class, I believe it may be necessary to explain some basics about the Altair electives classes in general to you.

"First of all, I want you to know that each Altair classroom is charmed. Those charms not only prevent the students under seventeen from taking notice of the Altair classrooms, but they also ensure that when you leave the classroom you won't be able to remember which of your year mates are also taking this class. This applies not only to you but also to your teachers. So, you can be sure that what happens inside the classroom stays there."

Some people in the room were wondering how they would be able to actually learn the art of Sexual Magic and use it later in their lives if they only were able to remember what happened during those classes inside the classrooms themselves.

_Why hasn't Hermione already put up her hand to ask exactly that question? _Harry was wondering. _It would surely worry her. _What Harry did not know was that Hermione had already asked this question in her first Altair elective class, which happened to be Warding and had taken place during the first period. Therefore, Hermione already knew what Professor Greige would say next.

"Nevertheless, you still will remember what happened to you and your partner during the lesson, so you will be able to learn Sexual Magic even with those spells in place. Only the things concerning the other people will be forgotten as soon as you leave the room.

"Furthermore, there may be some rather intimate practical tests in some of your classes, which will be needed to be carried out in front of the teachers to be graded. For those occasions, there is a special room reserved on the seventh floor which has strong memory charms placed on it, which makes everyone forget what happened inside this room. Even if you re-enter the room, you won't remember what had happened there."

Harry and Draco where both thinking the same thing when they heard this part: _I hope that my classes do not require me to perform sexual acts in front of a teacher. I really don't like exhibitionism/voyeurism. And Harry/Draco seems to agree with me, _they thought looking over at their partner and seeing the other's face.

"With this out of the way, let's start with the actual lesson, if there aren't any questions? No? Good. Most of you won't have been in a physical or intimate relationship with your Altair partner before yesterday, so as homework for the next lesson I want you to become more acquainted with each other. It doesn't matter what you choose to do, be it hand jobs, performing fellatio or simply touching, kissing and exploring each other's naked body, as long as you get more comfortable being intimate with your partner since you will be starting to perform Sexual magic soon."

_Parkinson looked like someone told her to eat snails. Poor MacMillan. I don't know how he will be able to get her into doing anything with him,_ Harry thought, watching them so he could avoid looking at Draco.

Unfortunately for Harry, Draco could not resist whispering "Maybe I should have taken care of your little problem this morning" into Harry's ear, which resulted in Harry looking at Draco anyway. Enjoying how Harry turned a nice shade of red, Draco went on: "I'm sure that tomorrow we will have another opportunity for it. We can't neglect to do our homework, now can we?"

After looking at his watch Professors Greige said, "We have about thirty minutes left. So let's start with practicing some basic spells you should know if you are performing Sexual Magic. Two of the most important spells are the cleaning and lubrication charm for the anus."

When he overheard Lavender saying that she would have no use for such spells, Professor Greige added, "Yes, even the girls will need those spells since anal penetration plays an important part in Sexual Magic, even if the penetration happens to be done through a sex toy, like a dildo or plug. Does anyone know the incantations for those two spells? And I do not mean the standard lubrication charm most of the males will be acquainted with." Here he gave a wink to some boys from Hufflepuff.

"Yes," he said pointing at Hermione, who had her hand up.

"The incantations are **Colluo culus* **and** Praeunctus culus***."

"Correct, ten points to Gryffindor," he said. Then, he took a transparent dirty tube and performed first the cleaning charm and then the lubrication charm on it, while his wife was going around and giving each student their own dirty tube to practice on. He waited about half a minute after which the tube got dirty again and performed the two spells again, before he said, "Okay, now it is your turn to practice those spells. Professor Colleen and I will go around and help you with it when necessary."

"Blaise," Draco called when he saw his house mate's first try on the lubrication charm, "the lubrication is supposed to coat the inside of the tube not the outside. So you better stop thinking about your nightly wanking sessions. Picturing your lubricated cock won't do you any good here."

"As if you would do better on your first try," Blaise said, turning around in his seat to give Draco a challenging look.

Not one to back down, Draco took out his wand and successfully casted both spells on his tube.

"See, Blaise, this is how it should be done," Draco said boastfully.

Harry, who wanted to take a look at Draco's handiwork before he casted the spells himself, saw that Draco's tube was not only spotless now but also nicely coated with a medium layer of violet lube.

"Well done, Mr. Malfoy, take ten points for Slytherin," Professor Greige said, having appeared next to Draco. "The Malfoys always have had a talent for sexual magic, haven't they?"

"That's right, Professor."

"Mr. Potter, let's see how you are faring."

Harry felt a bit silly and embarrassed to cast those two spells on a tube, especially since Professor Greige was still standing near his table, looking expectantly at him. Nevertheless, he tried it.

Harry's worked turned out not to be as good as Draco's, but it was a good start. At least his lube hadn't appeared outside the tube like it had for Blaise.

"I am sure that with a bit of practise you will be able to cast the spells as well as your partner," Professor Greige commented, before he walked towards the next couple.

"Can I?" Draco asked Harry, extending his hand towards Harry's tube. When Harry nodded, Draco brought the tube towards him and said, "I believe that you have cast the lubrication charm a bit too fast and therefore got a too thin layer of lubrication. Slower movement may also help with the cleaning charm."

"All right, I will try it out," Harry said, taking his tube back from Draco to lay it down on the table, so that the tube could become dirty again.

When Harry tried the spells again, the thickness of his lubricant had improved, it was not as thin as before, also the remaining dirt had decreased. Now, that the lubricant was thicker Harry noticed that his was red instead of violet. So he asked, "Why does my lubrication look red instead of violet?"

"Don't know," Draco answered. "Maybe it is just coincidence?"

"Oh, you don't know? The lubrication produced by this charm is individual for everyone. Our textbook said that the more powerful the caster is the more complex the lubricant will be. The weaker witches and wizards will only get a transparent lube, whereas the average wizard or witch will get a coloured lube and the more powerful ones will even end up with a flavoured lube. The colour and flavour represents the preferences of the caster," Hermione explained having read ahead already.

"But red isn't my favourite colour," Harry said, bewildered.

"Neither is mine violet," Draco added.

"Then you lucky two must have gotten flavoured lube," Blaise commented. "So what flavour did you get?"

Draco and Harry looked at each other, neither wanting to taste their summoned lube first. Picking up his Gryffindor courage, Harry extended one of his fingers and got some of the lube on it before sniffing on it.

"It smells fruity," Harry said out loud before he took a tender lick. "Raspberry."

"And yours?" Hermione asked Draco, prodding him to taste his lube too.

"Mhm, Blueberry, my favourite," he answered licking his finger clean, now that he knew that the lube tastes good. "Want some?" Draco asked Hermione and Blaise, laughing at the look they gave him in return.

"And what have you gotten?" Harry asked Hermione, who had also successfully casted both spells.

"Something blue, but I don't think that mine is flavoured since blue is my favourite colour." Nevertheless, Hermione was brave enough to test her own lube, not daring to back down since she prodded both boys before. "No, no flavour," she said.

Their talk was interrupted when Professors Greige announced, "We are finished for today. Still, I want you to practise those spells till next week. I will grade your ability to cast them next Tuesday. If you want, you can take those tubes for practising with you, but I want them returned next week. Also, I advise you to try the spells out on yourself or your partner after you get the hang of it. For some people it is harder to cast those spells on a human being, and it is a nice way to become more intimate with your partner. Dismissed."

With that, the four packed up their stuff, everyone taking their tube with them, wanting to practise some more until the test next week.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Angus:**Celtic, meaning "one choice"

**Greige:** again I let my dictionary decide what to use for names.

**Colleen:** Irish, simply meaning "girl", I find it rather fitting for a submissive

**Colluo culus:** meaning rinse and anus in Latin according to Google translator

**Praeunctus culus:** meaning lubricated and anus according to Google translator

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**AN2:** About the Professors Greiges. I already let the characters explain why I choose to have two teachers teach this class. If you are uncomfortable with their lifestyle, I can assure you, I won't write about it in this story. I simply wanted to have something else than the clichéd twins. And the setting allowed for such a unique pairing.

****Next:**** The first Ritual Magic class.


	11. chapter 10 the first Ritual magic lesson

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, _**_~letters and other written stuff~_**

**Rating:** M for sexual themes and language, slash in later chapters

**Warning:** lime (if you can call it that) aka little shower scene as a gift for this being the** 10th chapter **(not counting prologue)! How about reaching the 50th review in return? Possible?

**Betas:** jointheclub, Makoto Sagara

**Update of betaed-version:** 29 August

**AN: **Sorry for the wait but I had to work on my thesis for a while, but since I made good process, I am able to update sooner than I thought, and I wasn't in the mood to do some work this week. The poll on my profile is still open, so vote if you have a preference with whom Hermione should be together with in the end.

**Response to a review from jklmon: **Thanks for the lengthy review. I know what you mean about liking the rivalry between Harry and Draco. I was debating this point when I started this fic and came to the conclusion that the war made them both grow up. Therefore, Draco is over his childish hate of Harry and both are not friends, but respect each other and can be civil to each other. With Draco being attracted to Harry, while also still wanting to be his friend like back in first year.

**-~-~- Altair -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 10 – The first Ritual Magic lesson -~-~-**

When Harry entered the living room of Room Zero after lunch, Draco was already there reading a book in the left comfy chair. It was not very surprising considering that Draco had headed towards their rooms right after lunch was finished; whereas Harry had sat in the Gryffindor common room with Ron and Ginny for a while, discussing plans for the new Quidditch season and when try-outs should be held.

After placing his rucksack by the second comfy chair, Harry walked over to the small kitchen area, asking if Draco would like to have some tea too.

"Sure," Draco answered, looking up from his book, which happened to be the journal **Thothus*** Malfoy had written about his discoveries in the field of sexual magic. Draco had decided that he wanted to reread it before he discussed some of the information in it with Harry.

When he'd finished preparing the water to heat, Harry turned around to lean against the counter and asked, "It's weird, isn't it? Knowing that both Hermione and Blaise must have been in our Basic class last period, but not to be able to remember seeing them or anyone else there."

"Mhm, it is. It's funny how I remember that someone had explained the different outcomes of the lubrication charm, according to your power level and colour/flavour preference to us, but not to remember who it was."

"Yeah, but I am sure that it was Hermione who explained that to us. Not only because she would know about it, but because the wording sounded just like her in lecture mode, although I can't even recall if the voice had been female or male," Harry answered, walking over to the coffee table with the finished tea.

After passing one of the cups over to Draco, he went on, "I am surprised that we can actually remember that we have two teachers for this class, one male, one female, but to not know who they are."

"Granger must be devastated," Draco said in a false sorry voice. "To not be able to go to the teachers after classes to ask them questions like she is used to," Draco said, having placed his now closed book in his lap and drinking the tea Harry had brought him.

"Yeah. I just hope that she isn't asking us instead," Harry said with a shudder, before also taking a sip of his tea.

"Before I forget, Blaise asked me this morning if he could have a look at our room. Would this be okay with you?"

"Funny," Harry said with a chuckle, "Hermione asked me the same thing this morning after I asked her about having received a private bathroom herself. Which she hasn't by the way."

"They must get on rather well, when they are already scheming together to have a look at our room," Draco said amused. "But as long as you don't have anything against Blaise visiting our rooms too, I have nothing against Granger coming over."

"If you agree to not tell them about the spell placed on our bed or let them look into the Ritual Magic room, why not."

"Afraid of seeing your friend naked?" Draco asked in the challenging-teasing voice he had used in their previous years when he had been trying to infuriate Harry, while also raising one of his eyebrows.

"More like not wanting her to kick us out of our own bedroom in her quest to unveil all the mysteries of the bed," Harry answered, taking a sip from his tea before he continued. "I am already afraid that I won't be able to get her out of this room, without allowing her to borrow some of the books and promising her that she can read all the others at some time in the near future," he said, his left hand gesturing towards all the books, situated in the shelves of the wall they were currently facing.

"We could always try to hide them in the Ritual Magic room," Draco jokingly suggested. "Or if this doesn't help, there are always the whips and what not from the shelves in there left. I am sure a stroke or two will even get her to leave our rooms," he said with a big smile on his face, while trying not to laugh at the mental picture. He was successful with suppressing his laughter until Harry himself started laughing at that image.

"So, how does tomorrow afternoon after Charms sounds to you?" Harry asked, after he had regained his composure.

"Alright with me," Draco answered with a shrug, having stopped laughing too.

After this, they talked about varying things (mainly Quidditch), often laughing about something or another and generally enjoying each other's company. And only when the clock struck 2 pm did they realize how much time had passed. Both of them had enjoyed themselves too much during their talk to have noticed how time had flown by.

_I can't believe that our two free periods are already over,_ Harry thought. _It felt like I had been joking around with Ron, only that I felt even more relaxed and at ease ... I wonder why?_

_Wow, I can't believe that it is already two. But how goes the saying: Time flies always by faster if you are having fun? Which I certainly had with Harry, _were Draco's thoughts when he heard the clock strike two.

"We better get going if we don't want to be late," Draco announced, being the first to come out of his thoughts, successfully bringing Harry's attention back to the present.

"So, any idea where the classroom for our next lesson is located?" Harry asked Draco in the hopes that he would know where in Hogwarts the room was located. Harry was not in the mood to be nearly late for class again, because he did not know where to go.

"Not really. It must be somewhere to the left of the Slytherin common room, but nothing more," Draco said apologetically.

"Oh great," Harry exclaimed sarcastically. "How will I be able to be there on time if the trip from the tower to the dungeons already takes about 10 minutes?"

"You could always go through the Slytherin common room with me," Draco suggested. "If you still have your invisibility cloak, this shouldn't be a problem," he added, remembering Harry having been in the possession of such a cloak back in sixth year on the train.

"Good idea. Let me just grab my map and cloak and we can go."

"What map?" Draco called after Harry, who had gone over to his trunk in their bedroom to collect the mentioned things.

"A map of Hogwarts my father and some of his friends created during their time here. I will show you how it works," Harry called back, having decided that not only was Draco trustworthy, but he also felt like it would be right to show the secret of the Marauders' map to his new room mate. Since Harry's instincts rarely were wrong, he didn't see why he should not do it.

So, with map and cloak in hand, he returned to the living room to get his rucksack. Throwing the cloak over him, he said to Draco, "Lead the way."

And so the two of them, one visible and the other invisible, made their way down the stairs, through the male Slytherin door towards the classroom for their Ritual Magic class. Draco was a bit relieved that Harry had been able to follow him through the door, since it could have been that the doors were charmed so that only the Slytherins could go through the door leading to their common room.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"It seems like we are the first pair to arrive here," Harry said, when he and Draco entered the empty room.

"Must be because of the location. Not everyone can possess a map of Hogwarts to guide them here," was Draco's answer, now acquainted with the Marauders' Map and its secrets.

"I can assure you, Mr. Malfoy, that the absence of other students is not due to the location of this classroom. You two are simply the only pair to have been deemed compatible enough to learn the art of Ritual Magic this year," a rather young, female voice with a light accent said from their right.

Looking over, they saw a woman who reminded them of a twenty-five years-old McGonagall, only that this woman had honey blond hair instead of their familiar professor's dark locks. She even wore the same kind of dress robes McGonagall had worn during the Yule ball in fourth year, only that hers were blue instead of green.

"I am Professor **Immaculé* **and will be teaching Ritual Magic to you," she added when she had reached the middle of the room, where a low table with a tea set on top of it stood, surrounded by pillows.

Sitting down at one side of the table, she poured herself some tea. When Harry and Draco had not made a move to join her at the table, she called them over, "Close the door and sit down here with me. Help yourself to some tea, if you want."

Being nearest to the door, Draco was the one to close it. Then, he and Harry slowly walked over towards the table, settling down on a comfy pillow each, opposite their teacher. They were both unsure what to think of Professor Immaculé. At first, she sounded just like the strict Professor Snape with an accent, but her behaviour was the complete opposite, very open and inviting.

"Let's begin, shall we? I don't know how Hogwarts' previous Ritual Magic Professor carried out this course, but at my old school, Beauxbatons, we always had a rather informal setting," she began, then pausing to take a sip of her tea.

_This explains her accent,_ Harry and Draco thought in the meantime, giving each other a quick look.

"Not only because you won't be able to tell what happen during the lessons to an outsider anyway," she went on, pretending to not have noticed Draco and Harry's exchanged look, "but mainly because Sexual Magic, and especially Ritual Magic, is a rather intimate subject where being comfortable enough around each other to speak openly is always helpful. So, if you have any questions, feel free to ask right away," she said with a smile.

"First of all, there is a reason why there aren't many people able to learn and perform Ritual Magic, even if many assume that more people are able to learn Ritual Magic than Sexual Potions." After taking another sip of her tea, she went on. "There are three supporting pillars for Ritual Magic: self-control, high compatibility and, most importantly, a strong bond between the pair," she said, counting the reasons off with the fingers of her left hand for emphasis.

"Both the self-control and high compatibility are also very important for Sexual Potions, actually even more so than for this art. But, what many forget is that it is even harder to create a strong bond between the partners. Since you were accepted into this course, I gather that you both are still virgins, since otherwise the bond you will be forming would not be strong enough for the means of Ritual Magic." Here, both of her students blushed but nevertheless nodded in affirmation.

"Good," she said, "we will talk about choosing a bonding ritual for the two of you next week when we know how strong your current bond is and what **Typos Thesis*** you are. Afterwards, you will bond before the subsequent lesson. Until then, make sure that you stay virgins until the bonding ritual is completed because otherwise you won't be able to continue with this class," she stated with a firm look. "But, today, I will simply continue to inform you about important aspect of Ritual Magic."

Here, Harry interrupted her with a question, seeing as it was unlikely that she would answer it without him having to ask the question. "Ehm, Professor Immaculé. What do you mean by Typos Thesis?"

"Have you also signed up for Sexual Potions?" she asked him, instead of answering the question.

"Yes, but the first lesson won't happen until tomorrow," Harry added.

"Then you will get a detailed explanation of this term tomorrow, as well as finding out what Typos Thesis you are, since the Typos Thesis plays an important role there. For now, it is enough if you know that it includes your natural inclination towards submissive or dominant and top or bottom."

"Now, back to the topic at hand," she went on, not wanting to explain Typos Thesis in detail. "Most of the rituals require the use of Runes to amplify the magic. If the information I've gotten is correct, only Mr. Malfoy has achieved the necessary OWL in Ancient Runes for this class. Therefore, the two of you are at a disadvantage because only he will be allowed to compose the Runes. So, you won't be able to perform every ritual because of this. But since you only have to perform three rituals of your choice for grading, it shouldn't pose a problem.

"Also, cleaning rituals are important in Ritual Magic. There are many different ones in existence. In the next month, we will talk about the most common techniques for cleaning and preparing for a ritual. And if one of the rituals you chose happens to include a preparation that we haven't talked about, then we can go over it before you do the ritual."

"Any questions so far?" she asked them. When both of them answered in the negative, she talked about some history stuff for the rest of the lesson and assigned them to read the first two chapters of their books as homework for the next week.

"Can I go back with you?" Harry asked Draco, after they had walked out of the Ritual Magic classroom. "I am not in the mood right now to walk up to the tower from here."

"Understandable," Draco answered with a shrug, not caring either way, "but I want to grab something from the kitchen first."

"Alright."

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

When the two of them arrived back at their living room, Draco eating some of the cookies he had gotten from the kitchen, they settled down in the comfy chairs they had been sitting in previously.

"So, what do you think about Ritual Magic? Is it what you expected it to be?" Draco asked Harry.

"Not really. I kind of expected that because of me not having received an OWL in Runes that we would be a bit restricted but that there also seems to be restrictions by destined positions?" Harry said disbelievingly. He had had enough of destined stuff for a lifetime.

"Understandable, considering your past." Draco said sympathetically. "But for now, all we can do is to wait until tomorrow to find out what Typos Thesis we are and then decide on a bonding ritual next week," he went on, eating another cookie. Leaving _before we will be sleeping together in two weeks' time_ unsaid.

Draco's words made Harry realise that they did only have a limited amount of time before the two of them would need to have sex for the first time. Also remembering professor Greige's words from the morning, he suggested to Draco, "We should start getting more comfortable with each other soon then, if we have to bond in less than two weeks. It is our homework for Thursday's Basic lesson anyway," he ended lamely, fidgeting with the trim of his school robe and trying to justify his words (to himself or Draco he did not know).

"Hmm," Draco agreed. "Any suggestions?"

Silence, then Harry spoke up, "Maybe we can start small? Hand jobs, if this is okay with you?" Harry asked, blushing and unable to look at Draco, choosing to look at the fire instead. Since Harry naturally had already experience in wanking, he thought that this would be the easiest thing to start with.

Draco was surprised by Harry's boldness. He had not thought that he would suggest something which required this much sexual contact. He had thought that even with the Gryffindor boldness, Harry would only suggest some touching above the waistline.

"Okay...," Draco said hesitantly, "but maybe we can also do some lighter stuff like … I don't know ... cuddling maybe? To get used to being this close to each other?" he suggested, trying to not just start stuff out of the blue. Both of them were still virgins and rather inexperienced, after all.

"Alright," was Harry's short answer. He thought that Draco's suggestion would help him to get over the expected shyness and weirdness of the situations to come.

Silence, then Draco hesitantly suggested, "Maybe we can start with both of us sitting together on the couch as a start? I wanted to continue reading the journal from before anyway."

"The one you were reading after lunch?" Harry asked, remembering Draco having a book when he came in after lunch.

"Yes, that one," he answered, getting up from his comfy chair and walking over towards the couch, the journal already in his hand.

"I will read the assigned chapters for Ritual magic then," was Harry's response, fishing around in his rucksack for the course book so that he could join Draco on the couch. When he found it, he went over to sit a bit away from Draco.

"Maybe we should sit a bit closer if we want to get used to being near each other?" With a nod, Harry moved closer to Draco, so that their knees were touching before he leaned back and got comfortable.

And so, the two of them spend an hour reading together, their knees touching the whole time.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

When he was preparing for bed in the privacy of their bathroom, Draco casted the cleaning spell on himself, or at least tried to. As it turned out, you had to point the wand at your opening, but then your hand didn't have enough room to do the proper wand movement. _I wonder why he told us to cast the spell on either ourselves or our partner, when it is obviously not possible to cast the spells on yourself? _Draco wondered.

_And I really wanted to have a nice wanking session this evening, _he thought with disappointment_. _Not only was he a male teenager, but also he did not know when exactly Harry planned to go through with the hand jobs he proposed earlier. He did not want to embarrass himself by coming too quickly. Harry was a rather fit bloke after all.

_But then, there still is the good old method of casting a normal lubrication charm on your hands and prepare yourself manually. Since I don't know if I'll end up being the bottom, it can't hurt to loosen up my hole a bit. Besides prostate stimulation is always very enjoyable,_ Draco was musing to himself.

So, Draco casted the lubrication charm on his hands and then began to leisurely move his right hand up and down his cock, while he began to circle his opening with two fingers of his left hand to spread the lubrication around. When his hole was lubricated to his satisfaction, he entered it with his index finger, slowly penetrating the tight ring of muscles. Once fully inside, he let the finger circle around, widening the opening for his middle finger before he carefully added the second finger and began to search for his prostate to stimulate it thoroughly.

His right hand, which until then had been leisurely moving up and down his cock, now started to pick up speed and pressure, as well as taking more care of the slit at the front of his cock, which he enjoyed greatly.

Closing his eyes, Draco was not surprised to see a certain black-haired male appear before his inner eye, having started to randomly fantasise about him since the end of last year and even more regularly after he saw him at Twilfitt and Tatting's and began wondering who his partner would turn out to be.

He imagined that Harry was the one to touch him like this, touching his cock and playing with his prostate. He was standing behind Draco, whispering dirty words like _"Aren't you a wanting little whore, Draco?"_ into his ear. _"So eager for my touch." _Picking up his speed, Draco came soon with Harry's name on his lips. Thankfully, he had placed a silencing charm on the room in advance to not alert Harry about his little fantasy.

After Draco came back from his high, he quickly washed himself and got out of the shower to let Harry take his turn in the bathroom, who unbeknownst to him also decided to have a nice little wank, especially since he had not gotten to do it in the morning because he feared that Draco could come in at any time. But contrary to Draco, Harry's fantasy only involved a faceless male, not his Altair partner.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Thothus**: see chapter 3 for more information about him

**Immaculé:** French for pure, again I let my dictionary (the French one this time) decide the name of the character and got lucky with the first try again :)

**Typos Thesis:** Greek for "type of position", according to Google translator

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**AN2:** For the Blaise and Hermione fans: As you may have already guessed those two were not in this chapter because at least one of them was not a virgin before they got paired up. But don't worry. You will see them both again in Sexual Potions next chapter.

**Next:** Any guesses what Typos Thesis Harry, Draco, Hermione or Blaise will be? Wait and find out next chapter what I've assigned to them.


	12. Ch 11 the first Sexual potions lesson

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, _**_~letters and other written stuff~_**

**Rating:** M for sexual themes and language, slash in later chapters

**Warnings:** hand jobs as promised in the last chapter as well as mentioning of different sexual preferences

**Betas:** jointheclub, Makoto Sagara

**Update of betaed-version: **1st September

**AN: **I am sure you noticed that many authors have (because of the rating reminder) moved/copied their stories to other sites for safekeeping. You can also find this story on AO3(Archive of our own) under the same author name if it should be taken off . I also post it on the hexfiles after the chapters are betaed.

It seems like receiving the 50th review for the 10th actual chapter was possible. Thank you again for reviewing, especially to **LalalaSpacingInPandaLand **and** anon **who I couldn't thank before because they reviewed anonymously.

And I also apologise for the long wait. My thesis is not going well right now, so I had to spend a lot of my time on it and had not much time for writing left, or was just not in the right mood to write. Sorry. But I will keep to my promise of at least monthly updates.

**-~-~- Altair -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 11 – the first Sexual Potions lesson -~-~-**

**Wednesday, 3rd September 1997, Room Zero**

The first Wednesday of the new term started with thunder and rain. This suited Harry's mood just fine, considering that the first lesson of the day would be double Potions with Snape, followed by the first class of Sexual Potions. Before Harry could start to worry about Snape harassing him, he still had to fulfil the promised he made to Draco last night.

Since he had not felt comfortable, or rather brave, enough yesterday to go through with the mutual hand jobs he had proposed in the afternoon, he had suggested that they should postpone it to this very morning, when they most likely would be dealing with a morning wood and therefore, he hoped that they would be done with it faster. Though, he had to admit that Draco's ease about the whole thing was rather helpful in making him feel more at ease with all the sexual stuff.

He even provided Harry with an excuse to justify the act. Instead of pressing Harry to go through with the hand jobs Harry had proposed, he simply accepted Harry's suggestion to wait until now, saying with a smirk. "I had promised you a hand job for tomorrow morning during Basic anyway, didn't I?" It reminded him that it was also part of their homework assignment, which, in Draco's opinion, seemed to help Harry to deal better with the whole situation.

And so Harry now was lying awake in the bed, cuddled up with Draco just like the day before, listening to the rain pounding on the grand window and trying to find the courage to go through with the 'act' by thinking: _This is just another homework to complete._

Unfortunately, the fact that not only the sleeping position was the same as the previous day, but also that he could feel Draco's erection poking at his thigh again, did not make Harry any calmer. He was actually dreading for Draco to wake up since then he would have to go through with the hand job he promised.

"Morning," Draco greeted him with a big yawn when he awoke, not bothered to be cuddled up again.

Harry only mumbled a "Morning" in return before he worked up his Gryffindor courage to blurt out: "We better get through with the hand jobs now". His face turned red and made the intimate act sound like it was a threat.

Draco noticed the fearful/nervous tone in his voice and commented with a chuckle, "You sound like you offered to be held under the Cruciatus for an hour, instead of receiving an enjoyable hand job. Relax, Harry. I'm sure you already know that wanking won't kill you, so a hand job won't kill you either."

"Yeah," was Harry's shy answer mumbled into Draco's chest but at least some of his tension had been resolved through Draco's words and he was smiling a bit, thinking: _Just like I thought before. Draco's ease about all this helps me to stay calm myself. So, let's get over with it._

In the five minutes he had had before Draco woke, Harry came to the conclusion that the best plan of action would be to propose the 69-position he had heard Dudley mentioned once to his friends. It had the advantage that Draco would be unable to see his face during the act. Harry was also hoping that when they did it simultaneously, Draco would be too aroused and turned on to take much notice of Harry's own reactions. And, therefore, the whole situation would be less awkward for both of them.

Working up his courage, he asked nervously, "I was wondering, if we maybe could give each other a hand job while being in the 69-position?"

Draco was surprised by the suggestion, having imagined that they would do it one after the other. _But if it helps to make Harry more at ease, why not? h_e thought. Out loud, he said, "Alright, let me just get the lube and we can begin."

After Harry shifted over a bit so that he wasn't laying atop of Draco any more, Draco fished out his tube of lube from his bedside table, before he moved back to the middle of the bed. Harry's eyes followed him the whole time. When Draco looked at Harry, he noticed that he already sprouted a nice blush which he found _cute_, for a lack of a better word.

After some time, Harry finally began stuttering out: "Uhm...maybe we should start with…err…pushing off the covers?" Draco found it rather interesting how Harry's face had become redder and redder with every word he spoke.

Since Draco already was in a sitting position, he was the one to shove the covers towards the end of the bed and stayed there, waiting for Harry to say something. When nothing came from the other boy, he took the initiative and asked: "So, Harry, would you prefer we do it while lying on our sides or when one of us is lying down with the other on top?"

"On our sides, I think," was the answer some moments later. Harry still was pointedly not looking in Draco's direction, whereas Draco used the chance to take in Harry's exposed body.

"As you wish." With this, he started to move a bit back towards Harry, laying down on his side, facing Harry's cock while giving Harry a good look at his own still slightly erected penis, which Harry tried to not look at, even going so far as to close his eyes.

When Draco stopped staring at Harry's cock, he looked up at Harry's face and noticed the closed eyes, which brought forth a smirk on Draco's own face. Acting on his thought, he reached out a hand to caress one of Harry's thighs. Harry's eyes shot open at the sudden touch.

"See," Draco joked, "the sight of my cock doesn't blind you. If you would put some lube onto your hand, we could start."

Getting his mind back on the task at hand and taking a deep breath, Harry announced, "Eer, yeah, lube." He cautiously took the tube from beside his right, where Draco had left it before he moved away the covers, taking great care to not touch Draco anywhere.

Nervously, he put some of the viscous liquid on his hand before handing the tube over to Draco, who - to Harry's relief - had stopped stroking his thigh.

_Come on, Harry, it is not like you have not seen another's cock before while being in the showers_, the dark-haired boy thought to himself._ I could just pretend that it is my own cock that I am going to stroke. Not that it will be easy with Draco having pale blond hair instead of black. Also, his cock seems to be a bit longer than mine. _Taking a last deep breath, Harry hesitantly took hold of Draco's penis and lubricated it before he began to tenderly stroke it.

After the second stroke, he felt Draco taking his own cock into his hand and shuddered a bit from the foreign contact but didn't stop stroking Draco in return.

Draco's own strokes were not as tender as Harry's; nevertheless; it was still hesitant in the beginning. It was not because Draco was as uneasy about the whole mutual hand jobs, but because Draco had to hold himself back. When he had seen Harry's cock up close while he had warmed up the lube in his hands, he had thought: _If I did not know that it would make Harry feel even more uneasy I would love to give Harry a blowjob instead, _licking his lips at the image._ But as it is, a hand job will have to do._

After a while, pre-cum started to leak out of Harry's penis, and Draco moved his thumb over the slit on the top, earning a moan out of Harry - who's own strokes were still tender. This motivated Draco to pick up the speed as well as the pressure while giving special care to the top of Harry's cock, earning him another two moans.

Getting annoyed by Harry's soft strokes, he called out, "I am sure that you yourself prefer some more speed and pressure than that."

Getting embarrassed, Harry increased both the speed and the pressure, motivating himself between moans with: _Just pretend that it is your own cock you are stroking right now. _"Mmhmm."_ S.o maybe I should just go with what I like myself._ He reached out with his left hand and started to play with Draco's balls additionally to mixing hard and fast strokes at random with slower, softer ones. This seemed to work, as Draco had now started to moan as well.

_Finally_, Draco thought when Harry had increased the speed of his strokes._ His own increasing pleasure must have let him forget about his previous worry and embarrassment, _he reasoned before he allowed himself to get lost in the pleasant sensation of Harry giving him a hand job.

Feeling that Harry was getting closer to completion, Draco picked up his speed and some moments later, Harry came with a loud and breathy "Ahh" over his hand.

Harry only interrupted his stroking motion for some moments, wanting to not be behind Draco's pleasuring skills. With an "Urgh" sound, Draco reached completion a short while later.

After both of them caught their breath, Harry moved over to his bedside table to get his wand and _Evanescoed_ both of their sperm.

"So, still scared about hand jobs, Potter?" Draco teasingly asked.

"In your dreams, Malfoy," Harry answered back out of habit.

When he realised what he just said, he started laughing together with Draco, all the fears from the morning seemingly forgotten.

"How about a shower? I will even wash your back," Draco offered, getting up and moving towards the bathroom.

"I think I will shower after you're finished."

"Come on, Harry, the shower is big enough for five. Besides, we still have to become more comfortable with touching each other. It is not like you have never showered with other males before. And after the hand jobs, it shouldn't be so bad. Hmm?" Draco asked suggestively in all his naked glory.

"Okay, you win. I will shower with you. Satisfied?" Harry answered after realising that Draco was right. Their Basic homework was to start touching each other and showering seemed a rather safe thing to do to get more comfortable with each other's body. And they had to become comfortable very soon indeed, if they planned to continue taking their Altair classes.

"For now, but I may want another hand job later tonight," Draco joked before entering the bathroom with Harry in tow.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

When Harry, Hermione, Draco and Blaise entered the Sexual Potions classroom, which was situated around the corner from the normal Potions classroom, Michael Corner and Stephen Cornfoot were already there. Just like in Basic Trance-sexual Magic, Hermione and Blaise were sitting in the first row while Draco and Harry sat in the row behind them. Even Pansy and Dean were there. Lavender and her partner were absent though.

"For it being described as a rather rare field of Sexual Magic, quite a few students are taking it," Harry commented to Draco, before he was interrupted by the arrival of their professor.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," a male voice greeted them from the door. "I am Professor **Essentjelly*** and I will be teaching you the art of Sexual Potions. Unlike me, you luckily won't have to put up with Professor Slughorn as a teacher," he joked, but most of the present students who knew of Slughorn's collecting habit where shuddering at the thought of being taught by Slughorn of all people in Sexual Potions.

_Now, I am grateful that Slughorn resigned again, even if it means that I have Snape back as a Potions teacher, _Harry thought, remembering the cruel double potions lesson he had left just half an hour ago.

"In this course," Essentjelly continued on, "you will learn about the three aspects of Sexual Potions: Sexual brewing, human ingredients as well as brewing with a human cauldron." Looking around the assembled students, he asked, "Who of you can tell me what any of those three aspects include?"

When, as expected, Hermione's hand shot up, he looked at her and asked, "Ms. Granger, if I am not mistaken?"

"Yes, sir," she affirmed and began her explanation of the different aspects of Sexual Potions:

"The Sexual brewing, which is the part of Sexual Potions which requires the most amount of self-control, is the art where the properties of the potion are enhanced by having intercourse or other sexual activities during the brewing process of the potion. Most of the sexual activities happen during the settling time, others while the potion is stirred or ingredients added, which is a lot more challenging." She said all this with a straight face, only her cheeks turning slightly pink.

"The use of human ingredients, on the other hand, doesn't require sexual activity during the brewing process, as opposed to - for example the Polyjuice Potion- all the human ingredients used must have come from the brewers themselves. The most common ones are semen, vaginal fluid and blood. Often it is necessary that those ingredients must be acquired in a certain way," she continued, before going over to the last aspect.

"Nevertheless, both Sexual brewing and the use of human ingredients still make use of a cauldron, whereas for the **human cauldron brewing*** method no cauldron is necessary since one of the brewers functions as a cauldron. For this, the normal instructions like 'stir clockwise' receive a new, mostly sexual analogy, which has to be performed on the person functioning as the cauldron," she said, ending her explanation of the three aspects. Her voice had gotten a bit unsteady during the description of the last aspect, since she was not very comfortable with the image of using a human as a cauldron substitution.

"Well said, Miss Granger; take fifteen points for Gryffindor," Professor Essentjelly praised. "Since the human cauldron method is the most complicated part of Sexual Potions, we will keep it for last. For now, we will concentrate on the first two aspects of Sexual Potions."

"During our weekly lessons, we will go through the theory behind the potions, as well as learn some specific methods only used in Sexual Potions. The brewing itself will have to take place during your free time. You received a room suitable for brewing in your apartments, which you will use for this purpose, so that your privacy is ensured," he explained.

_He must mean our bedroom then, _both Draco and Harry thought.

"But before we can begin with the practical aspects, we have to determine the most important part of Sexual Potions first, which will also clear up your comment at the beginning of the lesson, Mr. Potter," he said, looking at Harry. He had obviously heard him talking to Draco about so many people attending the class.

"This important property is the **Typos Thesis***, which essentially is nothing but a term which sums up all of your own natural sexual inclinations and preferences. This not only includes the cliché positions - top or bottom - but also your role - dominant or submissive - in relation to the pair and also their sexual kinks. The Typos Thesis of you and your partner determines how compatible you are and what kinds of potions you are able to brew. Normally, a relative high compatibility is necessary to make use of Sexual Potions, but since we are only learning the basics of Sexual Potions this year, pairs with a lower compatibility are still accepted into this course. Therefore, so many of you were accepted into this course, Mr. Potter.

"Since there are many different Typos Thesis in existence, I will not bother you with all the types which can occur. Instead, we will use today's lesson for finding out each of your Typos Thesis through the **Lloj*** potion. After you find out what Typos Thesis you and your partner are, I want you to write a ten inch essay about the pros and cons of your type and how well it fits together with your partner's Typos Thesis. I already have brewed the Lloj potion for you. So, if you will please come up here and get one decanter each," he finished, pointing to about twenty glass decanters of black potions on his desk.

Since Draco was sitting near the aisle, he was the one to get up and bring back two decanters of the potion.

"All you have to do now is to add three drops of your blood and then look up the meaning of your colour and shape on pages eight through fifteen in your course book," Professor Essentjelly instructed them after everyone had gotten their decanter of potion.

Harry was unsure how to gain the necessary drops of blood for his potion. Therefore, he looked over at Draco, who had taken out one of his smaller potion knives and was cutting his left hand with it. Taking out his own knife, he copied Draco and added his blood to the potion, which instead of the solid black colour it had before, now it was spotting light and dark blue dots, about the size of an inch, inside the sea of black.

"Thank Merlin that yours isn't pink or bright orange," Draco commented when he saw Harry's decanter. "Otherwise, I would have refused to work with you any longer."

"Why? What do they mean?" Harry asked his partner out of curiosity.

"Pink stands for masochism and bright orange for sadism."

"Oh," was Harry's perplexed answer. After a moment, he asked, "And what do my blue dots mean?"

"I haven't finish the colour section yet," Draco began, "but dots mean that you are only mainly what the colour implies. Meaning that it is what you are mostly comfortable with, but you also are okay with the opposite of the thing the colour refers to. For example, if you had had pink dots, you would be a masochist, who sometimes enjoys being the sadist in the relationship."

"That would make a lot of sense," Harry commented.

"Mhm," Draco agreed. "If you had gotten stripes instead, it would have meant that you are 100% the Typos Thesis the colour indicates."

"And what have you gotten?" Harry asked. "Stripes or dots?"

"I got red and green dots," Draco answered. "Red means dominant, therefore I gather that I am supposed to be the mainly dominant partner in our relationship. "

_I guessed as much, since Draco was more comfortable and active during this morning's whole hand job thing,_ Harry commented to himself, not bothered by the outcome of Draco's potion.

"Since the book says that you always get at least your position and role, green must refer to my position preference," Draco continued his speech, unaware of Harry's thoughts. He himself wasn't surprised by it either, since he liked to be in control of every situation, but did not mind giving up the reins from time to time.

"Let's find out what it means then," Harry said, opening his textbook at the appropriate pages:

**~Blue: it can mean different things according to the luminosity**

** - Light, sky blue: submissive tendency~**

_Not very surprising that I am a mainly submissive person considering that to have gotten into Ritual Magic, we must be rather compatible. Therefore, it is only natural that I turn out to be submissive if Draco is the dominant in our pairing, _Harry thought with a shrug. He had already had a feeling that he would be more comfortable when Draco was leading the whole Sexual magic practice. _Now, I only need to find out what the darker blue means. _So, Harry read on.

**~ -middle, royal blue: enjoys blood play~**

_Ehm, No! _Harry thought with a shake of his head. _I don't believe that mine is a royal blue. It definitely is a dark blue._

**~ -dark, night blue: bottom tendency~**

_That is more like it. I gather that green means that you have topping tendencies instead,_ whispering his last thought out aloud.

"It is, or at least a dark green like mine means it," Draco whispered back, having heard Harry's whisper. "A neon green colour stands for a liking bondage and a middle green for spanking. I assume that both of your colours mean the opposite of mine?" Draco asked.

"Mhm," Harry answered. "Otherwise, I don't believe we would have gotten assigned to Room Zero."

"Ah yes, I forgot that the two of you got assigned to that room," Professor Essentjelly said, interrupting their talk, having reached their table now and taking in turn each of their decanter into his hands to take a closer look at them.

"Very nice combination you two have gotten. It is very rare that people get those colours as dots. Many receive them as stripes or get light and dark brown stripes instead, indicating that they are switches. Being switches has its own advantages, of course, but most of the time a pair is stronger if there is a determined leading position. You lucky two got the best out of those two combinations. So, it's no wonder that you got Room Zero," he ended his speech, continuing to Hermione and Blaise's bench to find out their results.

Interested, both Harry and Draco listened in into their conversation with Professor Essentjelly.

"Interesting combination. Not 100% compatible, since you, Miss Granger, are a complete dominant, whereas Mr. Zabini is only mainly submissive," he commented holding up a decanter with red and dark blue stripes which spotted some neon green dots and a decanter that had black and dark green stripes with light blue and neon green dots.

"But, I hope that you two will be mature enough to compromise on your role inclinations. But, overall, your Typos Thesis are quite compatible," he finished.

"I always knew that Granger is a dominant, with her being a bossy know-it-all," Draco whispered into Harry's ear, who nodded in affirmation to Draco's comment, whispering "Me too" back.

Having finished his rounds, Professor Essentjelly continued with the lesson. "Now, that it is affirmed that you all are compatible enough to be in this class, we can come to the last part of today's lesson: learning how to brew the Lloj potion," he stated.

"The Lloj potion belongs to the sexual brewing category. It is rather easy to brew, since it allows the use of little helpers, like cock rings, without having a negative effect on the outcome. Since it is not only easy to brew, but also because all of the present pairs at least consist of one male, all of you will be able to brew this potion. Therefore, it will be the first potion you will be brewing on your own in this class. So, if you will go back to page five, we can have a look at the brewing instructions," Professor Essentjelly announced.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Two minutes before the lesson was over, they had finished going through the instructions, as well as discussing the difference between brewing it with a male-male and mixed pair. When Professor Essentjelly asked if anyone had any questions and everyone shook their heads, he joyfully announced: "Good, if you do not have any questions left, then your homework will be to brew the potion before the beginning of the next lesson. I want all of you to hand in one half litre bottle per pair. The accompanying assignment will be due the week after next. Dismissed!" he finished walking out of the room.

Hermione was all excited and exhilarated about the task, while Harry and Draco could only think one thing: _OH SHIT! _

_How can we brew it by next week if Professor Immaculé told us to stay virgins until we have performed the bonding ritual, which we only will get assigned next week? We won't be able to bond and brew the potion on the same day. Even if we could, I don't believe that we can bond right after the next Ritual Magic lessons since it must require some preparation at least. _Wide eyed, they looked at each other, understanding what was going through the other's mind right then. Both of them shook their heads to indicate that they did not know how to get out of the dilemma.

Resigned, they started to pack away their stuff. When Harry looked at Hermione and heard her talking about going to the library, he suddenly got an idea, that might help them out of their tight spot.

"Maybe one of the books in our sitting room will have a solution?" Harry asked Draco, who was packing his last thing into his rucksack.

Smacking his forehead with his left hand, Draco said, "Not those, but the journal of my ancestor will." _Why hadn't I thought of it before? _Draco muttered to himself, too low for Harry to hear.

"Really?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Mhm, I will tell you about it tonight. Now, I just want to enjoy my lunch. I have had enough of potions for today. See you later," Draco said, leaving the room with Blaise in tow.

"You heard him, Harry," Hermione said to him. "We better go to the Great Hall before Ron eats everything from the Gryffindor table by the time we arrive."

"We better hurry then since he must have had a free period right now and most likely is already there," Harry said while leaving the Sexual Potions classroom. He hoped that Draco was right that the journal had an answer to their current dilemma.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Essentjelly:**I used the dictionary oracle again. Only this time I mixed up _essential_ with _jelly_ since I did not like either of them alone. In a twisted way, it even fits with potions if you interpret them as a fluid jelly which can be essential for healing. XD

**Typos Thesis:**Greek for "type of position", according to Google translator

**Lloj:** Albanian for Type according to Google translator

**About the human cauldrons:** First of all, it does not include things like having to eat frog eyes (at least not in this fic). It most likely will be that one of them receives a massage and a hand job while he has some herbs (like peppermint) in his mouth. And later on, the mixture is added to a previously brewed solution. I imagine it as a way to improve potions with exchanging some ingredients with the outcome of human cauldron brewing.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**AN2:** So, what do you think about their first sexual interaction? I hope I did nor overdid Harry acting like a shy blushing virgin, even if he is one and is rather nervous about all of this. I also hope that you will continue reading the story even if you may not like the Typos Thesis I chose. But since they will be switching sometimes, all of you should get a lemon you like.

Also I decided to not include the instructions for the Lloj potion since then it would not be a surprise any longer what they will have to do to brew the potion when it comes up in one of the following chapters.

**Next: **Hermione and Blaise visit Room Zero and Draco presenting the solution to the staying virgin until bonding problem to Harry. I already presented the solution in one of the previous chapters.


	13. Chapter 12 Curious visitors

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written stuff~**_

**Rating:** M for sexual themes, language and slash in later chapters

**Warning: **Cliffhanger, but the next chapter is as good as finished, so you will only have to wait for 2-4 days for the next chapter to be updated

**Betas:** jointheclub, Makoto Sagara

**Update of betaed version: **9th September

**AN: **Since my finals have started this week, I don't know when the next chapter will be finished. I hope that it won't take about a month again like last time. Btw, all the previous chapters are now betaed, thanks to jointheclub; the content is still the same. And sorry that not much is happening in this chapter.

Also, thank you for all the new author alerts, favourites and review :)

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 12 – Curious visitors -~-~-**

After the last lesson of the day, Charms, Harry together with Hermione and Ron went up to the Gryffindor tower. There still was tension between Ron and his friends after his verbal attack on them during the announcement of the room partners two days ago. Just like in fourth year, it would take some time before they would be able to speak freely to each other again and forget about the whole incident. For the time being, Hermione and Harry could do nothing more than try to not mention their new living arrangements in their talks with Ron. Therefore, they were talking about their new DADA teacher instead.

"I am curious how long our new professor will last," Harry mused. "Now that Voldemort is dead, the curse on the position should have vanished with him."

"It doesn't really concern us any more, does it?" Ron asked. "With this being our last year," he added as an afterthought.

"Maybe not us, but still I would not like to be in Headmaster Dumbledore's place. I mean, having to find a halfway competent DADA teacher every new school year must be hard. Even if our new teacher is not as good as Professor Lupin or the fake Moody, mind you, he still is a lot more competent than Umbridge or Lockhart were," Hermione answered, deliberately not bothering to use the honourable title of 'professor' for either of the last teachers, since their teaching surely wasn't worth this honour in Hermione's opinion.

"And I am sure that you don't want for Ginny to end up with being taught by Umbridge's cousin, do you?" Harry asked Ron.

"Of course not," was Ron's immediate answer when the trio had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady and entered their common room.

After greeting Ginny, they went up the stairs to their respective dorms so that they could put away their school things, which only ended in them meeting up in the Altair common room.

"I would love to stay up here in my room to do my assignments. It is much quieter here than in the common room," Hermione said wishfully when they went up the stairs which led to their private rooms.

"I can imagine, but you know that if you did, the whole tower would wonder why you suddenly aren't seen in the common room any longer, which we can't have happening," Harry said, having wanted to do the same thing too since he also would prefer the quite of his new living room; especially since with all the books there he would not need to go to the library to get his hands on the books he needed to complete the assignments.

"I know, Blaise already told me this on the first day," Hermione answered.

Ron left the two of them after they reached the top of the stairs, going right whereas Hermione and Harry went left to their rooms. Therefore, Hermione could continue speaking without fearing Ron freaking out. "Though, I am still contemplating to using my Head Girl as an excuse to have received my own room and thus a reason to spend my time up there to do my assignments. But I would need to ask Draco to go along with it first. It would be suspicious if I would have received my own room but not the Head Boy."

"Then it is a good thing that we will meet up at five," Harry said when they had reached the door with the number three on it, where Hermione and Blaise were staying.

"I can't wait to see your room," Hermione said excitedly, "but until then, we better start on the DADA assignment we got today."

"Yeah, see you in the common room," Harry answered before going towards his own room, the famous Room Zero. He did not really want to do the assignment right now, but knowing that he had to do it anyway, he decided it was better to have it out of the way before his homework started to pile up on him.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

When Harry walked into his room to discard unnecessary school supplies, Draco asked him when he would like to discuss the solution to their current dilemma between staying virgins for Ritual magic and brewing the Lloj potion for their Sexual Potion class next week.

"How about after dinner?" Harry suggested. "Right now, I've promised Hermione that I would work with her on our DADA assignment in the Gryffindor common room before showing her our room."

"No problem," was Draco's easy answer. "It may be better if we have enough time to discuss everything without haste anyway."

"See you later then."

"And don't forget to wait in the common room. For them to be able to enter our rooms, they need to be invited by both of us directly," Draco called after Harry.

"Yeah, I know. And even if I had forgotten, I am sure that Hermione would have reminded me, since it probably was mentioned in _Hogwarts: A History,_" Harry said with a laugh while leaving the room to start on his essay.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

At two after five Harry entered the Altair common room through the male Gryffindor door.

"I see, you finally decided to join us," Blaise said from his comfortable position on one of the couches, imitating Professor Snape. He and Draco had already been waiting for Harry and Hermione for ten minutes now. "Let me guess, Hermione over there wanted to finish the DADA assignment first," Blaise went on, pointing at Hermione, who had just entered the Altair common room through the female Gryffindor door.

"Yep," was Harry's short answer. "Shall we go then?"

With this, both Draco and Blaise got up from their sofas and walked upstairs, following Hermione and Harry's lead. Hermione made a small detour to her room to discard her now completed DADA assignment.

When they all finally reached the door of Room Zero at the end of the left side of the balcony, Draco and Harry entered the room first before they started the process of inviting their two friends into their room. The reason for this procedure was that the rooms recognise their inhabitants; therefore a password was not needed. The drawback of this system was that only people who already knew before the room assignment that the couple living there were taking Altair electives were able to enter someone else's room. Even if this requirement was met, the persons still needed to be invited to the room by the inhabitants. Otherwise, the wards would throw them right out into the hallway again.

"Hermione, Zabini, please come in," Harry stated from inside, beginning the inviting process.

And Draco added more formally: "Granger, Blaise, I hereby invite you to enter Harry's and my room."

With that, the both of them had adjusted the wards of their room for their two friends to be able to enter Room Zero for this one time.

_It is a good thing that the four of us already knew that we all take Altair electives before the rooms had been assigned, _Hermione thought._ Otherwise, I would not have been able to enter Room Zero because of the wards to secure the privacy of the cohabitants regarding their choice of taking Altair electives or not. Not that it would have made a difference for the two of them,_ _with it being well known that only people we are taking Sexual magic lessons get assigned to Room Zero._

"It doesn't look any different than ours," Hermione stated after she had entered the hallway of Room Zero. "We also have a hallway and two rooms leading away from there," she continued.

Blaise hummed in agreement when he entered after her.

Draco led them towards his and Harry's bedroom first having decided to have the tour first before settling down in the living room to talk. While Blaise stayed on the left half of the bedroom, looking at the long table meant for brewing Sexual Potions, which was, unlike his own, situated in Harry and Draco's bedroom, Hermione walked towards the bed placed on the right side of the room.

When Harry saw Hermione sitting down on their bed he nearly had gotten a heart attack. He breathed out a sigh of relief when he noticed that Hermione was still clothed, since her feet were still touching the ground. But to Harry's dismay, Hermione started to lift up her feet to sit cross legged.

Harry could not bear to see his best friend naked, so he looked away and closed his eyes waiting for Hermione's shriek, which never came. Instead, someone was whispering into his right ear: "Calm down, Harry, nothing happened," Draco said in a calm voice, also having placed his left hand on Harry's shoulder. "If you haven't noticed, the room wants to protect most of its secrets. For example, the door to the Ritual magic room is missing."

Opening his eyes, Harry looked to the right, and indeed the door to the Ritual Magic room was missing. "Thank god," Harry muttered under his breath in relief before he was courageous enough to look at Hermione, who was still clothed even if she was sitting on their bed and was taking in their room.

"Where do the other two doors led to?" Hermione asked, having finished looking around.

"The one over there is the entrance to our walk-in closet," Harry answered her, pointing at the mentioned door, Draco still standing beside him with his hand still on Harry's shoulder. "And the other one leads to our bathroom"

"I am sure Draco takes up the whole thing, doesn't he?" Blaise asked in good humour, waving a hand in the direction of the walk-in closet.

"Nope, only about two-thirds of it," was Harry's joyful answer, giving Blaise a wink.

Not wanting the jokes about his large wardrobe to continue, Draco decided to change the topic. "Blaise, you really must have a look at our shower. It is perfect." F_or shower sex_, Draco added in his thoughts.

"Really?" Blaise asked with a raised eyebrow. He knew that Draco was trying to avert from the topic of his immense wardrobe, but Blaise decided to humour Draco this time as he had made fun of it often enough already. "Then let's have a look"

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"Oh, your bathroom is wonderful," Hermione exclaimed, a bit jealous when she saw the big tub as well as the spacious shower. "How I would have liked to have gotten one for myself. You two are really lucky to have been assigned to Room Zero."

"Or the two of you are taking Ritual Magic," Blaise commented with a wink, "since it is the only one of the Altair electives which includes cleaning rituals, which obviously can't be performed in the communal bathrooms."

"Maybe," was the only thing Draco offered as an answer to Blaise's statement. Harry looked away, so that Blaise would not notice his blush.

Unbeknownst to all of them, Blaise wasn't so far off with his comment. Draco and Harry had only gotten their own bathroom for this reason. Nevertheless, the bathroom was also a permanent part of Room Zero since only people compatible enough to take Ritual Magic were admitted into Room Zero and so far all of the previous inhabitants had applied for Ritual Magic. Therefore, no one could say for sure if the bathroom would also be there if the pair had decided to not take Ritual Magic, unlike all of their predecessors.

"Come on, let's go to the living room and have some tea before dinner," Harry suggested.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"Maybe we really should have hidden the books in the Ritual Magic room as you had suggested," Harry said to Draco after Hermione and Blaise had left not a minute before to get ready for dinner. "With all the books safely hidden away in a room she didn't even know existed, we would not have needed to force Hermione out of our room like that."

Draco just laughed hard, with Harry joining in shortly. Both could still clearly remember Hermione's reaction when she had entered the room they were currently sitting in.

**Flashback, about an hour before**

As Harry had feared, Hermione had only taken one step into the living room before she promptly walked over to the left side, where all the books in their living room were situated. He and Blaise had to pry her away from the book shelves with Harry promising to lend her some of them to read and Blaise forcefully dragging her with him to the sofa.

Draco had amusedly been watching the whole scene play out from his safe place in the kitchen corner of the room, where he had prepared tea for all of them. It is unnecessary to say that the tea was ready long before Hermione had sat down on the sofa.

The good side of the visit had been that not only had the four of them agreed to start calling each other by their first names, along the lines of my Altair partner's friends are my friends, but also they found out that they could talk about their electives like Basic to a certain degree if they had correctly guessed that the others had been there too and when they were sure that their conclusion was correct.

To Hermione's great joy, Draco had also agreed to go along with her idea to pretend that the Head Boy and Girl received their own rooms, so that the both of them could spend more time in their Altair rooms.

Blaise was pouting like a little child at the end of this talk, since Harry had said that he would also spend more time up here in his private room under the pretence that he was wandering around the castle to find some peace from all the stares he got from being the Boy Who Lived. It was not like Harry had not been leaving the common room for hours on end last year, either with him stalking Draco or just wanting to be left alone to mourn the death of his godfather. Therefore, Blaise was the only one of the four who did not have an excuse to stay up in his Altair room for a lengthy period of time. And he would have liked to spend some more time up there as well.

**End Flashback**

When both of them had finished laughing, Draco said: "It is a good thing that Hermione so badly wants to do her homework in her Altair room. Otherwise my threat of taking back the agreement to say that the Head Boy gets his own room would not have gotten her out of here."

The reason why Draco had to threaten Hermione to leave the room was that when Hermione and Blaise had been leaving, Hermione had five books from Harry and Draco's room with her. But to her terror as soon as she took one step out of Room Zero, all five books vanished from her arms and reappeared on the living room shelves. None of the boys were surprised that Hermione promptly changed her mind and did not want to leave Room Zero any longer, with the fear, that she now would be unable to read all the interesting books she saw before. To Harry's relief, Draco came up with the idea of taking back the private Head room to make her leave.

Harry really loved his friend, but he still felt that his and Draco's room was decidedly their own and not a public library. In the end, he and Draco agreed that Hermione could read the books on Tuesday afternoons when Harry and Draco were in Ritual Magic and maybe sometimes during the weekends when it suited them.

"Oh, I don't know maybe you could have just tried to threaten her with adding blueberry lube to her drink every time she eats in the Great Hall, like you did with Blaise's tea earlier," Harry said, fondly remembering that after Blaise had made a bad joke about Draco's hair, the blond had in revenge inconspicuously casted the lubrication charm on Blaise's teacup, mixing a bit of lube into the tea and making Blaise wonder why his tea suddenly tasted like blueberries, since he did not remember that Draco's lube had a blueberry flavour.

"I don't know if that really would have been a threat, considering that Blaise rather enjoyed his spiked tea," Draco answered smirking at the memory. "Maybe I should try it out myself too. Who knows, it may be really as good as Blaise said it was," he added as an afterthought.

"As long as it is not my tea which ends up with it, help yourself," was all Harry said before getting up from his arm chair to go to dinner. With a "See you later", he left the room to meet Hermione in the Gryffindor common room.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

After dinner, Harry was the first one to arrive in Room Zero. He decided to wait in what had become _his_ armchair for Draco's arrival. _I really do hope that Draco has a solution to our problem,_ Harry thought. _I wonder what is keeping him though, since he left the Great Hall __shortly before me and he does not have to walk all the way up the school to reach the tower, _he mused while he waited anxiously. _Sometimes I wish that I had such a short time to reach __the Entrance Hall, especially since most classes are taught at the lower levels, _Harry thought longingly.

"Sorry for the wait," Draco said, apologizing when he arrived ten minutes later, "but some of the younger years were in a quarrel, which I needed to resolve before coming up here. Let me just get my ancestor's journal and we can begin discussing the problem at hand."

"Alright," Harry said, trying to calm down his anxiety. "I will get us something to drink. Is Coke okay?" he asked, having spotted some Coca-cola bottles on one of the kitchen shelves yesterday when he wanted something to drink before going to bed, without thinking that Draco may not even know what Coke was since it is a Muggle drink. Harry had been surprised to even find some Coke in Hogwarts.

"Yes" was Draco's answer from the doorway. He had had gotten to drink some of the dark Muggle drink during the times when he had gone shopping in the Muggle world and rather liked it.

When Draco re-entered the living room, Thothus' journal in hand, Harry had already placed their drinks on the table and now sat on the couch, since he believed it would be better to have their discussion if they were sitting next to each other, instead of opposing one another in their arm chairs.

"So, this is your ancestor's journal?" Harry asked. "Weren't you reading it yesterday?" he added when he recognised the cover.

"Yes, I was. I started reading it a while ago. It holds some interesting theories about Sexual Magic. I don't know how I could have forgotten about what it says this morning, especially since the solution to our problem is one of the Malfoy's family secrets."

"I remember Hermione saying something about your family being rather acquainted with Sexual magic," Harry interrupted Draco.

"Yeah, they are, even if I didn't know about it myself until my seventeenth birthday with Altair Black's spell being in place," Draco answered, remembering the talk he had with his father during the holidays.

"So, what is this family secret that will solve our current dilemma?" Harry, eager to finally know the solution, prompted Draco, who seemed to be lost in thought.

"It actually is really simple," Draco began.

**...TBC**

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN2: **Since Draco is wearing a Muggle suit in the films, I gather that he sometimes goes into the Muggle world to shop. Therefore, he knows what Coke is.

**Next:** Draco explains what's in the journal.


	14. Chapter 13 Thothus Malfoy's journal

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written stuff~**_

**Rating:** M for sexual themes, language and slash in later chapters

**Warning: **the usual sexual themes but no lemons yet

**Beta:** Makoto Sagara

**AN: **As promised the next chapter is finished to not make the cliffhanger unbearable. Also a big thank you for all the new reviews, favourites and alerts.

Btw, in this chapter I added a hint who from the side pairing (Hermione and Blaise) was not a virgin before the partners had been assigned. And sorry for this chapter being a bit short but I wanted to post it asap.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- chapter 13 – Thothus Malfoy's journal -~-~-**

"**It actually is really simple," Draco began …**

"Since you read the first few chapters of our Ritual Magic book yesterday, you already know that for a strong bond to be formed it is important that the couple lose their virginities to each other during a bonding ritual," Draco further explained.

After Harry nodded in affirmation, he continued: "The finding my ancestor, Thothus Malfoy, has made is that for the bond to be strong, it is not important that the pair lose their virginities during the bonding ritual. The only thing which really matters is the fact that they have lost their virginities to each other, and therefore in a sense they own each other's innocence. Actually, most of the time the bond is even stronger if the pair has lost their virginities to each other outside of a bonding ritual and only bonded afterwards."

"But if it is like you said, then why hasn't someone else found this out and made it public?" Harry interrupted Draco, bewildered. He could not understand why after all this time the Wizarding world still believed that it is so important to lose your virginity in a predetermined ritual, if as Draco said the bond would be stronger if they slept together long before the ritual.

"Think about it, Harry," Draco began his explanation, which was a mix of what stood in the journal and his own conclusion. "In both cases, it is important that you've lost your virginity to the person who later becomes your Ritual Magic partner. How high do you think is the chance that two teenagers who had slept together turn out to be compatible enough to be considered to be paired for Ritual Magic? Especially since magical compatibility plays a far greater role than the compatibility of their bodies. And most of the time one of them already has lost their virginity to someone else beforehand. In this case, the requirement of mutual ownership of each other's virginities could not be met." Here, Draco paused to take a sip of his drink and to let Harry think about what he had just been told.

After a moment, Harry voiced his agreement to Draco's argument. "Yeah, I see your point. If I and Ginny had not found out that what we feel for each other is actually only a siblings' love, we most likely would have gone further and with her already having been together with Dean, only she would have owned my virginity."

Draco was positively surprised that Harry was so open about his failed relationship with Ginny Weasley. The downside of this was that Draco felt jealous that Harry had once thought that he was attracted to her and not to him.

Draco's mood improved, though, when Harry added: "So, it really is a good thing that we found this out before it went beyond kissing, or otherwise I would not only have felt very awkward around her in the future, but I would not have gotten the chance to learn this kind of magic with you." He looked Draco in the eyes at the end when he said _you_ while having a bright smile on his face, obviously happy that fate had been on his side for once.

"Mhm," was the only thing Draco said to this comment, being lost for words because of Harry's smile and comment, which has warmed his heart. Even if Harry hadn't said anything like 'I like you', it still felt like he had done just that to Draco. Trying to get back his words he drank some more soda, enjoying the feeling of the bubbles made by the carbonation on his tongue.

Having found his composure, the Malfoy heir continued with his explanation: "This whole owning of each other's virginities is also the reason why most pureblood parents demand from their children to stay virgins until they come of age. Or at least they do this if they value Sexual Magic like my family does.

"I know that when you are a teenager this sounds unfair of your parents to demand this of you," Draco told Harry from his own experience of this special parental demand. "But what else can they do to ensure that their children have the best possibility to take up Sexual Magic classes in their seventh year, if they so desire, if Altair Black's spell prevents them from explaining the reason for their demand to their children? I mean, they only want their children to be able to decide for themselves if they want to try out Sexual Magic, and Ritual Magic in particular. It is not like once you've lost it you are able to get it back again.

"There were times when I thought about not listening to what my father had said. You know, having a little teenage rebellion? But in the end, I thought that he would not have asked this of my without good reasons, so I stayed one until now. Him promising to explain it on my seventeenth birthday had helped, too. Also knowing that other students my age had gotten the same lecture from their parents, also with the promise to get explanations on their seventeenth birthdays, made it easier. It made me think that it must have something to do with finally being legally considered an adult."

When Draco had been surprised about Harry's openness before, Harry was now even more so. The only pureblood family he had close contact with are the Weasleys and they did not seem to care much about Sexual Magic, if Ron's behaviours and attitude were to be taken into account. As far as he knew, only the twins, Bill and Charlie had a positive attitude towards Sexual Magic in general. It seemed like the purebloods he had considered to be closed minded might have reasons to behave like they do, at least that was what Draco's explanation let him now to believe.

"But to come back to our original problem of staying a virgin and brewing the Lloj potion on time, I believe the solution is quite clear now," Draco said with a smile, interrupting Harry's thinking process.

"We simply brew the potion, and because we are Altair partners, it won't matter because we would still have lost our virginities to each other?" Harry suggested quizzically, still a bit unsure about having reached the right conclusion.

Draco laughed. Not only because of Harry's insecurity, but also because Harry made it out to be a bit too simple.

"Basically, yes, but it is not that easy. There are still certain rules which have to be followed, but they aren't so bad. Oh, before I forget, since what I will tell you now is a Malfoy family secret, you are not allowed to talk about it to Gr-Hermione," Draco told Harry, still trying to get used to calling the know-it-all by her given name. _At least I got used to calling Harry by his first name instead of Potter pretty fast,_ Draco thought.

Harry nodded his agreement, eager to hear what Draco's ancestor had found out.

"You were right that brewing the potion before bonding will not affect the strength of the formed bond. But if losing your virginity before the bonding is not to affect the strength of the bond, it is very important that the loss of it has not occurred during another ritual-like event, such as Sexual Potions brewing. It has to happen naturally, on our own terms so to speak."

"So, before we can brew the potion, we need to have lost our virginities to each other already, if it is not to affect the strength of our bond?" Harry asked to make sure that he got it right.

"Yes," was Draco's answer. "I personally prefer it that way. You can only lose your virginity once, and I myself would like it if some 150-year old wizard who lived decades ago doesn't tell me exactly how it has to take place. Thank you very much," Draco ended sarcastically.

"Me too, to tell you the truth," Harry agreed with Draco.

"But I think that there still was a restriction to this. Let me look it up, yeah?" Draco asked and began to flick through the journal without waiting for Harry's agreement.

Harry patiently waiting for Draco to find the appropriate paragraph, drinking his Coke and hoping that it didn't turn out that in their case the opportunity to decide for themselves how their first time went did not apply for one reason or another.

"I've found it," Draco exclaimed joyously. "Ah, yes, here it says something about the special case of homosexual male pairings:

**~If both partners are male then special rules apply. Since, as I have stated above, males possess two kinds of virginities which they can lose, it is important that they lose those virginities according to their Typos Thesis.~"**

Here, Draco stopped his reading to look up at Harry, who had a quizzical look on his face.

"Since I gather that you do not know what he meant with two kinds of virginities, I will explain it to you," he said to Harry, even if Draco did not want to explain this special topic to Harry, or anyone else for the matter. Really who would want to talk about the different kinds of virginities to one's former adversary, who now has become your acquaintance and Sexual Magic partner?

"Ehm, yeah. I believe you know that normally the loss of one's virginity means that you had sex for the first time," he began, feeling awkward to even have this talk which was kind of funny, considering that the two of them had been giving each other a hand job just this morning and even had shared a shower afterwards.

"This situation falls under the loss of the** virginitas universalis***, the universal virginity as it is called in English. But for a woman, this also means that she receives sperm inside her body for the first time. I don't know why, but magic regards the act of receiving someone else's sperm inside your body as another loss of your virginity, known as the** virginitas recipientis***, the receiving virginity.Some believe that this has something to do with the fact that creating children/a new life is also seen as a magically powerful act.

"Nevertheless, for a male, this simply means that he has two virginities to lose, at least if he isn't bottoming for another man during his first time. Then, he is in the same position as any woman would be, losing both of his virginities at once. Clear enough for you?" Draco asked Harry, ready to answer any questions he may still have, but hoping that there weren't any for him to answer.

After a short pause, Harry answered him: "Yeah, I think it is".

"But do you know what I am wondering about?" Harry asked Draco before the blond could continue. "If two women are together then this would mean that they would not be able to lose their virginities to each other? So they would never be able to perform Ritual Magic?" Harry asked him, wondering about Lavender and Parvati who most likely were taking Sexual Magic classes.

"I believe that there are some rituals in existence which allows them to bless some things, like dildos, to be recognised by magic as a part of them so that they can actually own each other's virginities, or at least their virginitas universalis. But, naturally, I have not paid much attention to this topic, so there may be some other solutions in existence," was Draco's short answer to the unexpected question. It was enough to satisfy Harry's curiosity, so he felt free to move on.

"But to come back to our current situation, let's continue with the rules we will have to obey," Draco said to bring them back to the topic at hand after the small detour to the types of virginities one can lose. So, he began to read from Thothus's journal again.

"**~This means that a complete bottoming man loses both of his virginities to his partner, whereas a complete top man in turn only loses his virginitas universalis to his partner for the bond to be strongest. **

**In the case that their Typos Thesis implies that the partners are compatible switchers then it is important that the main bottom loses both of his virginities before the topping partner loses his virginitas recipientis to his mainly bottoming partner. In the rare case that their Typos Thesis happen to not be completely compatible, then the couple has to decide which of them in the future will disregard his Typos Thesis and the pair will lose the appropriate virginities according to this decision.**

**Furthermore, it is important that the sexual act is also performed not only according to the positions determined by the Typos Thesis but also according to the role. For example the dominant bottom will be the one in charge during the first encounter, regardless of the fact that he is the one bottoming. **

**In the case of a main and a side inclination, it is obvious that at first the main inclination is carried out, before a second round follows where the side inclinations determines the role and positions during this second intercourse.~"**

With this, Draco had finished reading the for them interesting parts of the journal and closed the book, before laying it down on the table in front of him and looked up at Harry.

"Okay, so our Typos Thesis are mainly dominate top and mainly submissive bottom," Harry stated, trying to find out in what order they will need to lose their virginities to each other.

"Yeah," Draco voiced his agreement.

"So, ehm, this means that eh…," Harry began searching for words but was encouraged when he saw Draco looking at him with a smile on his face, which also seemed to relax him a bit. He did not know that Draco was smiling because he had begun to blush and the blond found that Harry looked cute with the blush on his face.

Taking a deep breath to calm down, Harry tried to continue. Nevertheless, Harry's sentence came still out as a question: "… that you will top during the first time and I will afterwards be the one on top?"

"It would seem so," Draco calmly answered. Even if inside he was as anxious as Harry, his pureblood heir training helped him to not show it. "Also, I would suggest that we wait about a day between the two rounds. And then brew the potion the day after."

"So, when are we going to do everything?" Harry asked., wanting to have a set schedule so he could mentally prepare himself for what was to come.

"I don't know," Draco said, trying to come up with a suitable time schedule, "but the coming weekend would be a good idea since we will have more time on our hands then." After a moment of thinking, Draco suggested: "How about we start the first round Friday night and have the switch on either Saturday morning or night. This will leave us with enough time to recover before we brew the Lloj potion on Sunday."

When Harry was contemplating Draco's idea, he remembered that he had scheduled the Gryffindor Quidditch try-outs for Saturday morning and he was loath to be up on a broom all morning if he had been fucked the night before, since as far as he knew most people, especially in the beginning, had trouble sitting properly, let alone flying on a broom, for a day after their first time bottoming. Therefore, Harry suggested a new schedule.

"I have Quidditch try-outs on Saturday morning," Harry began and saw how Draco grimaced in sympathy at the thought of him being in Harry's position. His sympathy even went so far that Draco let out an "Ouch".

_It is a good thing that Slytherin's try-outs are held on Friday afternoon, not that I had planned to go there_, Draco thought. _My schedule is rather full right now, even without the additional practises three times a week. It is not like it is forbidden to fly outside of Quidditch practise, as long as the pitch is not booked by a House team. But to be able to play against Harry again would be nice too..._Draco contemplated.

"Yeah," Harry agreed to Draco's exclamation of pain. "So, maybe we could start on Saturday evening and then switch positions the next morning. This would mean that we will have to brew the potion on Sunday night though, but if we aren't up for it, we could always postpone it to Monday night since we both have a free first period on Tuesdays," Harry suggested. If Draco had not mentioned that they also had to brew the potion on the same weekend, Harry would have totally forgotten about it, because he was so concerned about his first time, or better yet _times _since they had two virginities to lose, that the potion had completely left his mind during the talk about the different kinds of virginities and how two males should lose them.

"Sounds good to me," Draco said in agreement, before he drank the last of his Coke and got up from the sofa. "If you don't mind, I will finish my Runes homework now."

"Go ahead," Harry answered, getting up to take their empty Coke bottles to the kitchen area where they vanished.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**virginitas universalis: **Latin for "the universal virginity" according to Google translator

**virginitas recipientis:** Latin for "the receiving virginity" according to Google translator

**Question:** So who wants Draco to start playing the Slytherin Seeker again? Because right now, he doesn't want to go to the try-outs. But Harry could always try to persuade him. ;)

**Next:** Thursday, meaning Harry has the morning to himself to think about everything that happens so far and maybe even the second lesson of Basic.


	15. Chapter 14 Thursday morning musings

**Disclaimer: **See prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written stuff~**_

**Rating:** M for sexual themes, language and slash in later chapters

**Beta:** Makoto Sagara

**Warning: **Some might not like the scene in the shower, though I only tried to describe the situation as realistically as possible. Not everything is perfect, even in the world of fanfiction.

**AN: **Sorry for making you wait for over a month for the next chapter, but I have a bachelor thesis to finish, which took up all of my time for the last few weeks. And to my regret, it still is not finished. But it should be finished soon, so the updates should be quicker again, at least until the next university term starts. So, this is a rather short chapter, more of an Interlude. The next one, hopefully, will be longer and won't take over a month.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 14 – Thursday morning musings -~-~-**

For the first time since he had started sleeping in the bewitched bed of Room Zero (it didn't allow the people sleeping inside it to wear any clothing), Harry woke up without lying in Draco's arms. He did not know that both of them still unconsciously moved towards each other during the night. The only reason why he was not currently cuddled up with Draco was that, opposed to the dark-haired teen, the blond had gotten up at 7:30 am to be on time for his first classes of the day, Runes and Arithmancy, which Harry did not take. Hence Harry slept until shortly after 10 am since his first class, double Basic Trance-sexual Magic, did not start until 12:30 pm.

After letting out a big yawn, Harry looked up at the dark red canopy of their bed and decided to use the time on his own to think about everything that had happened in the last three days. It was so much that it seemed like a full month had already passsed.

It was not surprising the that majority of his thoughts were centred on the new Sexual Magic classes, as well as his Altair partner, Draco. Harry was positively surprised that after years of trading insults, he was able to spend hours with Draco without feeling awkward at all, yesterday morning's hand job aside. But the memory of the hand job not only gave Harry a nice blush, it also made him realise that despite what he had thought during the holidays, he was not really ready for sex yet.

_When I applied for the Altair electives, I believed that I already accepted not only the certainty that I would have to have sex with one of my classmates, but also would possibly be doing it with another guy. But now, when confronted with it in reality, for all I had thought I would be ready, I am not as confident about the whole situation as I thought I would be,_ Harry realised.

_God gracious_, _I will have sex with Draco the day after tomorrow! _Harry thought, shocked, sitting up in the bed. His heart rate had picked up during his reflecting process. It beat faster the more agitated he became about the fact that he would soon lose his virginity and the fact that he was not as ready for it as he previously believed himself to be.

With deep breaths, he tried to calm down again. "Come on, Harry," he spoke out loud, talking to himself. "It is not like you're alone in this. Draco will be there with you the whole time." This prospect calmed Harry down enough to not only stop talking to himself but to also to lay down on the bed again.

_Yeah, Draco will know what to do, just like yesterday morning during the mutual hand jobs. It is not like he is a vir- _Here, Harry abruptly stopped, when he realised that Draco indeed was, like himself, still a virgin.

_With how comfortable he seems to be while handling the whole situation, I had totally forgotten that the two of us are in the same boat. _This realisation brought Harry back to his previous musings about what awaited him on the upcoming Saturday — besides the Quidditch try-outs.

_Okay, Harry, what could you do to make the whole thing more bearable? _He asked himself, in the attempt to calm his nerves again. He was more than a little nervous and just a bit scared about being intimate with anyone so soon.

_Maybe I could try to plan as much as possible ahead of the event, _Harry mused after a moment. _Okay, let's see... The who, where, and when questions are easy to answer. It will happen here — in this very same bed — on Saturday evening with Draco. At least we won't have to worry about undressing each other, fumbling with buttons and zippers that don't want to open. The bed will do it for us, _Harry thought with a small smile gracing his face when he looked down at his exposed naked chest. He had been too lazy to cover himself up again after the sheet had moved down when he had sat up in shock some minutes before.

_So this leaves me with the 'how'._ After taking a deep breath and crossing his arms behind his head, Harry continued imagining how his first time would happen. _As Draco and I discussed yesterday, I will be the one to bottom on Saturday, and because my Typos Thesis happens to be submissive I will also have to let Draco be in control. But maybe it is better this way, _he thought, thinking back to what he had read in the appendix of his _Basic Trance-sexual Magic book_ yesterday.

Hermione had given him the advice to take a look at the appendix for his Sexual Potions homework, because in the appendix the four major Typos Thesis (Top/Bottom and Dominant/Submissive) were explained. While browsing through the book, he had also found a short chapter on intercourse. There, it had been explained, that it was very important that the top knew what he was doing when preparing the bottom. Otherwise, the bottom could be severely hurt.

_Opposed to myself, Draco already has down the hang of the new lubrication and cleaning charms they taught us on Tuesday. And he is far more confident than I am when it comes to those things as a whole anyway. So, it is probably better that he will be in charge,_ Harry thought, feeling better now about being the main bottom and submissive in the relationship.

_This reminds me, that I still haven't tried out to cast those two spells on myself yet. It would be even more embarrassing if I have to let him cast those on me,_ Harry thought, blushing hard from embarrassment, even if no one was in the room with him. _I really must try it sometime soon. And most importantly to not forget to cast them Saturday night_. _But besides this, there should be nothing more for me to ponder about, besides remembering to stay relaxed, to make the whole thing as painless as possible. The rest will have to happen on its own, once it's started. _Harry ended his musings and stared up at the canopy of his bed.

After two minutes of simply staring, he got out of the bed and went into the bathroom for a shower. When he was about to enter the shower, he belatedly remembered that he had wanted to practise the lubrication and cleaning charm on himself. And what better place to try it out than inside the shower? So, Harry quickly walked back into the bedroom to get his wand, not even bothering to hide his naked body with a towel, because he knew that Draco was in class right now and no one else would be able to enter Room Zero.

When he was back in the shower, with his wand safely stored out of reach of the shower spray, Harry first washed his hair and cleaned his body. Then, he decided to try out the two spells. In his opinion, he had already mastered those spells, if the transparent tube they had gotten for practice was anything to go by, but he knew that his professor had said that it was a different thing to cast the spell on a living person.

But when he wanted to try out the cleaning charm, he unsurprisingly reached the same conclusion as Draco: _How the hell should it be possible to cast the spell on yourself? Really, he must not have tried it out himself,_ Harry thought angry.

_The wand movement makes it impossible to cast the cleaning charm on your own entrance. And I know from the tube that it is important, that the wand is pointed at the entrance or the spell will not reach where it should. I would not care if it didn't work properly with the lubrication charm, since I can always lubricate myself the Muggle way. But how should I be able to avoid having to ask Draco to cast the cleaning spell on me? Oh, this will be so embarrassing, _Harry thought, dismayed. The fact that Draco would be in the same predicament as him the day after did nothing to lift his spirits.

_Why had I been happy at first to have received a male partner and not a female one? _Harry asked himself. _With a girl, I at least would not have to worry about cleaning and lubrication charms, since they would not be necessary. _But when the thought of who the possible partners in his year were, he was quick to take back his previous thought and realised that with Draco he really had gotten one of the best partners available.

He was even more reassured when Pansy Parkinson came to his mind. Harry really felt sorry for Macmillan. _The poor boy is stuck with Parkinson, who is unlikely to accept anyone else other than _'her'_ Draco as her Altair partner. I really do not want to be in his position. I would not even know how to talk her into doing the assignments with me._ Harry was grateful for Draco being his Altair partner._ He at least tries his best to make me feel comfortable during the whole thing, _he thought with a smile.

_I don't know what could have been worse than getting Parkinson,_ Harry mused. _On a second thought though, I would have hated to got Lavender and becoming her Po-Po. Not to forget that she would have got on my nerves with trying to talk me into taking Sexual Divinations with her. _Harry shuddered at the very idea, even more relieved to have been paired with Draco, the earlier thought about useless cleaning charms forgotten for the moment.

_Draco at least does not mind being paired with me and is even able to calm me down. And better yet, instead of complaining behind my back how bad I am at anything sexual, he gives me helpful hints. Even if it comes in form of taunts, like 'I am sure that you prefer some more speed and pressure than that for yourself'. _The memory of yesterday's hand job brought his mind back to his current dilemma of the not working cleaning charm.

Resigned, Harry decided to at least try to finger himself, so that when Draco would most likely prepare him on Saturday, he would know how it felt to have something up there. In all the years before, he had never contemplated to try out stimulating his prostate, even after the twins once had told him that it was very enjoyable and would take wanking to a new level.

Taking his wand into his hand again, Harry cast the normal lubrication charm, which he had cast countless of times since the end of third year, to get a nice amount of lube, so that he could try out fingering himself for the first time.

To his disgust, it did not end well. The first knuckle of his index finger had gone in without problems, the lube assuring a smooth entrance after he had circled around it for a bit. But when he had shoved the digit deeper, the tip of his finger had touched his own faeces and he had let out a "Yuk", before quickly pulling the finger out again.

"And that's why that damned cleaning charm should be used first, if one wants to put anything there!" Harry muttered darkly and angrily, before he gave up on trying to loosen up his arsehole for the day and deciding that it was about time to get out of the shower, if he did not want to be late for lunch.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN:** Right now, Draco is only going to the Quidditch try-outs as a spectator. And will later in the story have private Seeker games with Harry. So, if you want Draco to actively take part in the Slytherin Quidditch team, leave a review ;)

**Next:** They have their second Basics lesson, where you will find out how the cleaning and lubrication spells can be practised on oneself. And then maybe also the Quidditch try-outs, if I come this far.


	16. Chapter 15 The way of blow jobs

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written stuff~**_

**Rating:** M for sexual themes, language and slash in later chapters

**Warnings: **bad '_Head_' Girl jokes, and some jokes on Lavender's expenses.

**Beta: **Makoto Sagara

**AN: **Thank you for all the new reviews, alerts and favourites! Wow, I already reach Thursday in the story! So only two more days until Saturday and the first lemon.

One of my reviewers asked why Harry and Draco haven't done any of the lighter stuff. Since I believe some of you were wondering about it too, here a short explanation:

For neither of them is at the moment love or even friendship involved. So, they do not feel close and comfortable enough to hug or kiss each other. Harry right now sees the performance of Sexual Magic as a duty, and since Sexual Magic is all about the heavier stuff, he tries his best to get comfortable with those first. Especially, since their time to get to know each other is severely limited, so, there is no time for kisses in his mind. Draco, on the other hand, feels attracted to Harry, so there is also lust on his part, but still there are no romantic feelings which demand kisses and hugs. But don't worry, Hermione will talk with Harry about this subject soon.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- chapter 15 – The way of blow jobs -~-~-**

After lunch Harry and Hermione were one of the first to enter the Basic Trance-sexual Magic classroom. When they started to walk towards their seats and came closer to the students' desks, they noticed that on each desk lay two colourful, long objects, one for each person. Walking closer, they recognised that they were dildos.

Turning red, Hermione pleaded, _Please let Blaise not make a joke about those dildos. He already made enough __**Head**__ Girl jokes after yesterday's Sexual Potions class, because brewing the Lloj potion involves giving him __**head**__. I really shouldn't have asked him to let me practise a blow job on him, to be properly prepared for the actual brewing on the weekend._

Harry had also turned red, but, opposed to his friend, he did not fear any bad jokes from Draco. He was instead wondering about the colours of the dildos on his desk, because there were a dark green and a dark blue dildo. It was not only rather ironic that those two colours represented their position according to the Lloj potion, but also that on his side of the desk lay the blue one, symbolising him being the mainly bottom of the pair.

_Too bad I do not remember what the other students colours were, so I could find out if it really is a coincidence, or not, _Harry thought._ Didn't they say that what happens in the classroom stays there? _Looking over at Hermione's desk, he saw that she and Blaise had gotten a yellow and a red dildo. _If I remember correctly, red stands for dominant. But yellow? _Shrugging, Harry gave up on figuring out if the colours of the dildos were related to the colours of their Lloj potions and whether the information about his position had left the Sexual Potions' classroom or not.

When a short while later Draco took his seat besides Harry, he simply raised an eyebrow and pointed his head towards the dildos in the middle of the desk. Harry only shrugged in answer.

"Hasn't Granger voiced one of her theories about what we will be doing today that could require the use of dildos?" Draco asked Harry.

"It's Hermione," Hermione corrected Draco friendly but sternly, moving around in her seat to face him.

"And I am sure that our dear _Head_ Girl had been to lost in exiting thoughts to improve her _head _skills even more and testing out the new tips tonight, that she totally forgot to voice her ideas out loud," the newly arrived Blaise said to the three, before Hermione could say anything else.

"Why can't you stop with those stupid Head Girl jokes?" Hermione asked her Altair partner, annoyed. Both she and Harry had blushed at Blaise's comment.

But before Blaise could answer her, or even make a joke about Draco's Head Boy status, their professors entered the classroom.

"Good Afternoon, class," greeted Professor Angus Greige. "I hope that you have practised the cleaning and lubrication charm from the last lesson. At the end of this double lesson, Professor Colleen and I will go around to take a look at your spell work, and give advice if necessary." When he noticed that one of the Ravenclaws look a bit worried, he added, "The test still is next Tuesday though.

"The first part of today's double lesson is about the theory behind blow jobs. Normally, I would have continued with how to properly prepare yourself and your partner, but your Sexual Potions teacher kindly asked me to move the lesson on blow jobs forward. The majority of the pupils here are taking Sexual Potions and as you know, the blow job is the most important part of the Lloj potion you are to brew by next week."

On one hand, Harry was relieved to hear that they would learn about the art behind blow jobs since it is an important part of the Lloj potion he would be brewing with Draco for his Sexual Potions class. The two of them had not decided yet who wouldl be the one to give the blow job while the other was doing the actual potion brewing. So, Harry felt reassured that he at least would know what to do, if he happened to be the one giving head.

On the other hand, though, Harry did not feel very happy about the prospect of trying to perform a blow job in the middle of a classroom where all his other year mates could watch. It was bad enough that everyone knew that he and Draco were taking Altair subjects.

Seeing Harry's scowl, Draco whispered into his ear, "At least it does not seem like a live performance on you partner will be involved."

Harry only groaned. He could all too well imagine the embarrassment such a performance would bring, memory charms on the door, or not. With him and Draco being assigned to Room Zero, they most likely would be the first choice for such a live performance. Harry did not know what would be worse, him giving Draco a blow job, while the whole room was watching him or him being the one to receive one from Draco. Both situations would be mortifying and brought a deep blush to Harry's face. He had been lucky that during the whole episode the class's attention had been on Lavender, so that no one besides Draco noticed his blush.

The girl had snobbishly told Parvati in a loud voice, "I don't need lessons on blow jobs. Really, I know how to do it perfectly already." Of course, this comment had been overheard by both professors, and so Professor Greige had asked her to show her '_perfect' _blow jobskills to the class. So, right now Lavender was slowly moving from her seat in the back towards the front, head raised with a smug expression, holding a pink dildo in her left hand to give a practical demonstration.

"She doesn't even take Sexual Potions," Hermione commented to Blaise. "So, she most likely doesn't even know what is important for the Lloj potion to be brewed correctly."

"How do you figure that she isn't in our Sexual Potion class?" Harry asked her, having overheard the comment.

"I remember that our professor said that each pair in his class at least consists of one male. So, she and Parvati aren't taking Sexual Potions," Hermione whispered back, before she directed her whole attention on Lavender, who had just reached the front of the classroom.

"Please begin," Professor Greige instructed her.

After shooting a last nervous look to the class — the attention having gotten to her nerves — Lavender held up her pink dildo and began with her practical demonstration. Everyone watched her with interest as she put it to her mouth and began to run her tongue up and down the sex toy to lubricate it with her spit. After she was satisfied with the amount of lubrication, she took the tip into her mouth to suck at the first third of the dildo. After two or three minutes, Lavender decided to use her trump card and deep throated the dildo, only still holding the end with her hand to keep it from falling to the floor. After that stunt, she sucked, licked and deep throated some more before the dildo vibrated and ejected a little amount of pumpkin juice into her mouth. The end she had been holding onto now showed the number six in a bright blue light.

"Thank you for the demonstration, Miss Brown," Professor Greige said. "Though, it seems that even you can profit from this lesson. Because as beneficial as it is to be able to deep throat, it still is not everything which makes a blow job enjoyable. But maybe you will be able to receive a ten, at the end of today's class?" her professors chided her.

"So, has anyone tips for Miss Brown to improve her skills?" Professor Greige asked his class, after Lavender had sat down in her seat again. When no one raised their hand he added, "Don't be shy. It is not like anyone will remember who said what. And remember that you can always profit from telling the one who performs the blow job what you like. Communication is a key in any relationship. Sexual Magic partners are no exception to this."

Blaise found it very amusing that every male in the class, himself excepted, was looking either at their desk or out of the window. No one wanted to talk about how they would like their blow jobs to be. _Or maybe they do not know what they like, since they haven't received one until now, _Blaise thought, when he looked at a red-faced Harry, who was pointedly looking at his quill.

Deciding to be nice to his classmates, Blaise raised his hand to give the arrogant blonde Gryffindor a hint or two. _Really, I would have thought that Pansy would try to boast with her so-called blow job skills to try to catch Draco's attention._

"Mr. Zabini, what would you like to say to Miss Brown so that she may improve?" Professor Greige asked the black boy.

"First of all, she should not forget to use her hands. Especially during the beginning of her demonstration, where she only had concentrated on the head, she should have used her hand to stimulate the other part of the dildo."

"A very good point," Professor Greige said. "Even if it is called a blow job, most people are not able to relax their throat enough or suppress their gag reflex to deep throat. So, they should pay attend to the part their mouths cannot reach with their hands. Anything else you would advise her to do, Mr. Zabini?"

"Yes," Blaise answered. "Instead of simply sucking at the tip, she should have used her tongue to lick at it."

"Another good point. Take ten points for Slytherin for both of your tips. Would anyone else like to add something?" When no one raised their hand, he continued. "Okay, in this case, I will explain to you how a blow job should be done." And with that, he started to give instructions to his pupils — such as you should cover your teeth with your lips. Hermione attentively took notes the whole time.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"And now, it is time to practice what you just learned," Professor Greige announced after a little bit more than half of the double lesson was over. "As you have seen before, during Miss Brown's demonstration, the end of the dildo will give you a number between one and ten to show you how good your skills are. Also, the dildo will eject a bit of pumpkin juice to indicate that in reality you would have been able to bring the penis to ejaculate. And while you are busy with that, I and Professor Colleen will walk around and test how you have advanced in casting the charms from last lesson."

Since the two professors started on the other side of the room, Harry, Draco, Hermione and Blaise had no choice but to start practising how to give blow jobs. To stall time, both Harry and Draco leaned down to their rucksacks to retrieve their transparent practise tube from Tuesday. Neither of them wanted to try out giving a blow job while the others were watching. Both of them especially feared Blaise comments. As Harry had learned yesterday afternoon, Blaise enjoyed making jokes about all things sexual.

Hermione, the model student she was, had her tube already out on her desk, so she was the one who Blaise prodded to give a blow job to her dildo. Hermione was surprised when at the end of her blow job her dildo showed a ten.

Blaise just looked smug. He already had the pleasure of receiving a blow job from Hermione yesterday, because she had insisted that she wanted to practise for the Lloj potion. And Blaise greatly enjoyed her skills, or he would not have made all the Head Girl jokes since then. So, he was not surprised that Hermione had gotten a ten at the end, even if she only had been able to take about two thirds of the sex toy into her mouth. But Hermione had made good use of her hand to also put pressure on the remaining third of the dildo.

After Hermione had regained her composure, she turned the tables and instead prodded Blaise to show how good his own skills were. "So, Mr. I-advise-Lav-Lav-to-do-a-blow-job, how good are you on doing it yourself?"

"A ten, what else, _my_ _dear Head Girl_?" was Blaise answer.

"Oh, really?" Hermione asked sarcastically. "Let's see it then!"

And so, Blaise started to give his dildo a blow job. And while both Blaise and Hermione were busy with Blaise's attempt of a blow job, Harry and Draco decided to try it out without their two friends watching them like hawks. The other upside of this was that neither Harry nor Draco was able to watch the other while they performed blow jobs on their respective dildos.

Harry, who after his first experience with giving a hand job to Draco, had learned that it was best to go with what he himself liked, or in this case what he believed he would like as he had not receive a blow job in his life. So, he went with a nice amount of spit for lubrication, paid special attention to the tip and wanked the upper half of the dildo with strong strokes. In the end, Harry's efforts were rewarded with a seven.

_For this having been my first try, a seven is great,_ Harry though to himself. _Even Lavender had only received a six, and Won-Won had bragged about her 'superb' blow job skills while he had still been together with her. _In short, Harry was happy with the result.

With a small smile on his face, Harry looked over at Draco. The blond was currently slowly sucking his way to the tip of his green dildo and looked very sensual in Harry's eyes while he did it. With a popping sound, Draco released the dildo, which now showed a ten at the end.

To Draco's dismay, Harry had not been the only one to watch him finish. Blaise and Hermione had turned around in their chairs, as Blaise had finished his blow job demonstration with a nine, shortly before Harry had finished his own attempt.

"It seems Harry, that you got as lucky as me with the _Head_ Boy," Blaise commented with a smirk, and caused Harry's face to turn red. Draco only groaned. He could already see Blaise teasing him in addition to Granger with the whole _Head_ Boy/Girl comments for a while to come.

Professor Greige, who together with his wife had just reached their tables, of course had to overhear Blaise's comment and asked, "Oh, is this so?" before he took Hermione's and Draco's dildo in his hand to look at their results.

"Indeed, the _Head_ Boy and Girl seem to be very talented at giving _head,_" Professor Greige said, when he saw that both of them had received a ten. "Besides you two, only Mr. Cornfoot has received a ten."

Blaise gave Hermione a big smirk and winked at Harry, when even their Sexual Magic teacher made the Head Girl/Boy innuendo. Draco and Hermione, on the other hand, could not believe that one of their professors — a grown up, married man — would show such a childish behaviour.

"But let's see how your cleaning and lubrication charms are doing," he said to Harry and Draco, while Professor Colleen, asked Hermione and Blaise to show their spell work.

All four of them received a nod of approval from their respective teacher for their spell-work. Before Professor Colleen could leave her table, Hermione asked her how it is possible to cast the cleaning charm on oneself, as the wand-movement prevented the spell to be cast successfully..

Her answer was a simple: "Oh, you cast it wandlessly, of course." When Hermione looked at her with sceptical eyes, she added, "Trust me, with a bit of practise and the wish to really want it to work, you will be able to do it in no time." To confirm her words, she took Hermione's practice tube, which was dirty once again, and cast both spells successfully without the use of her wand. She simply had waved her hand over the tube, before she laid the lubricated tube back on Hermione's desk and walked towards the front of the room.

_Great! I am sure that I will be able to learn to cast those spells wandlessly in no time, _Harry, Draco and Hermione thought sarcastically after this demonstration. Harry and Draco even groaned. Opposed to Hermione, they would need those two charms regularly in the very near future. Both of them were already frustrated over their failed attempts to cast those charms on themselves in the shower.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN2:** I know that Professor Greige might seem like a second Snape, but he simply does dislike students who think that they already know everything about Sexual Magic, or sex in general, and behave as arrogantly as Lavender has. Because they are young, they are inexperienced, and therefore, still have many things to learn.

**Next chapter** is called "The way of kisses", if I do not change my mind until then. Have fun guessing what it entails, since it does not include a scene where Harry and Draco are actually kissing.


	17. Chapter 16 The way of kisses I

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written stuff~**_

**Warning: **adult language, cliffhanger

**Beta: **Makoto Sagara

**AN: **Sorry for the wait. Originally I wanted to finish about two to three chapters for Altair between the two university terms, but I got an idea for an one-shot, so most of my time is spent working on this new project instead. It should be finished soon and is called "Dragon Pox". Therefore, this chapter is a bit short, but better than nothing.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- chapter 16 – The way of kisses I -~-~-**

During Transfiguration—the only class Harry had which Draco did not take—Harry decided that he needed to speak with someone about his fears of what would happen this upcoming Saturday. It was not like he was afraid that Draco would hurt him. On the contrary, he was sure that Draco would give his best to make the experience as enjoyable as possible. But, Harry was still very nervous and also a bit embarrassed. The news that the cleaning charm could only be cast on oneself wandlessly hadn't help to reduce his embarrassment at all.

Therefore, Harry decided that he needed someone to talk to. Ron was, for obvious reasons, out of the question. The twins, with whom he had already shared some of his personal thoughts over the last years, were not in the castle with him now and Harry did not want to discuss this topic through letters. That left him with his two closest female friends—Hermione and Ginny. But since Ginny would only turn seventeen over the summer, his only option left was Hermione.

"Hermione," Harry asked his friend after McGonagall had finished the day's lesson, "can we talk?"

"Of course, Harry," was her immediate answer. "What do you want to talk about?"

"It's personal, so could we talk somewhere private? Your room maybe?" Harry asked her. He did not want to talk about his insecurities while they walked up towards the Gryffindor tower and he also did not want Draco to hear what he was discussing. So, Hermione and Blaise's room was the best option for privacy.

"Oh, ehm," Hermione began before she called out, "Blaise? Could you please come up to our room to invite Harry in?" Hermione knew that Blaise had wanted to go to the library with Draco so that they could work on the Runes assignment they received that day.

"Of course, everything you say, _Head _Girl" was his answer and Hermione hoped that Blaise would tire of his stupid joke soon, very soon. Otherwise, she might have to come up with ways to shut him up._ Maybe being bound to the bed for an afternoon will do the trick? _She contemplated.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"Please come in, Harry," Hermione said to him, when Harry was standing before Room Three. Harry was curious to know how a normal Altair room would look like. According to Snape's description, it should have two rooms – a bedroom with some desks to do school work and a room especially designed for the needs the Altair classes the inhabitants attended required.

"You heard the _Head _Girl, feel free to come in and stay as long as you want to," was Blaise way of giving entrance to Room Three to Harry.

As soon as Harry had entered the room, Blaise announced, "I'm off to the library." He was a bit in a hurry. He didn't mind going down to the dungeon from the Transfiguration classroom to allow Harry entrance to the room, instead of walking directly from there to the library. But, Draco had had a free period and would be already waiting for the black-haired boy to finally show up. The blond hated it if someone made him wait for no good reason. Blaise just hoped that helping Harry would be a good enough excuse for Draco. The blond seemed to like Harry well enough, so it only made sense that he would not be mad with Blaise for being ten minutes late.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

As Hermione and Blaise's room did not have an extra sitting room, the both of them had settled down on the big four-poster bed in the bedroom. To Harry's surprise, their Altair room had only a long desk for brewing potions. But from Hermione's own surprised look, Harry had gathered that the room normally looked different. Most likely the room had other special tools for Warding or Enchanting, but as with his own Ritual Magic room, the room tried to protect its secrets.

"So," Hermione began, "what did you want to talk about?"

"Ehm...Yeah... " Harry began, not knowing how to best voice his worries. "...it's about our Sexual Magic classes," Harry finally said.

"I guessed as much. So, where's the problem? I'll try to help you the best I can. But with the spell in place, I don't know how much I'm able to say. Though, being inside the Altair rooms should enable us to talk a bit more freely."

"It's not really class related," Harry admitted to her. "It's more like I am afraid of sleeping-with-Draco-for-the-first-time," he rushed out. Hermione needed some moments to figure out what her friend had said.

"Oh, Harry. It's normal to be afraid. Most of us are nervous about our first time," Hermione tried to reassure her friend. "Well, your situation is a bit different than a normal couple's since you have a past to overcome, but I am sure that Draco will give his best to not let the past linger between you two. We've all grown up during the last year or so, especially him."

"It's not Draco I'm afraid of. Really, he's been very supportive so far. It's more like what happens if I fuck up. Both of the people must know what they're doing for no one to get hurt," Harry told her. "And then, we were told today that the spells can only be cast wandlessly. I'm nervous enough as it is, I don't need to be totally embarrassed on top of it," he added.

"Oh, ehm … I haven't seen it that way yet. But, of course, for you two it is necessary to cast them," she answered him. Hermione had asked the question earlier today only for academic reasons. She had not thought about male pairings would need the charm on a routine basis.

"Hhmm, maybe you could cast the charms in advance?" she suggested after having thought about it for a little while. "That way, you'd only feel awkward at the beginning and can then forget all about it while you are kissing. I mean, if you only cast them right before, then it will ruin the moment you have worked up and you would have to start all over again."

"What do you mean with ruining the moment?" Harry asked her, bewildered. "We will just do it and be done with it."

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, shocked. "How can you say something like this? Don't tell me you see Sexual Magic only as a task which you have to fulfil?"

"Ehm, yes?" he answered unsure. "We're only partners for the Altair classes, after all. It's not like we're boyfriends, who hold hands and kiss and make out or something."

"That may be true. But, Harry, have you never imagined how it must feel like to Draco? If it's only about business for you, then he will most likely begin to feel like you don't care about him at all. Even if you're not together, you should at least try to make your partner feel important and cared for. Otherwise, he may start to feel like he is nothing more than a whore with whom you sleep with and then throw aside." Hermione knew that the whore comment was a bit exaggerated, but she feared that only harsh and brutal words would get through to her friend. Growing up with the Dursleys and then having had a madman after him hadn't done him any good with understanding how a normal relationship should be like.

The whore comment made Harry realised that he might have to rethink his current opinion about Sexual Magic. He had not thought that without kisses or some caresses involved that Draco might felt like he was being used, like he is nothing better than a prostitute. "Or to quote Ron, he would feel like 'it was only a pretext for people like Snape to get sex because they wouldn't be able to find an agreeable woman otherwise,'" Harry said out loud.

"Exactly. So, maybe instead of overthinking the whole event, you should just concentrate on getting more comfortable with Draco and try to show him that even if the two of you aren't a couple that you still care about him. That he and his feelings are important for you. That you care."

_I really felt more relaxed when Draco teased me during the hand jobs,_ he thought offhandedly. _And not to forget that Draco was the one who proposed that we cuddle on the couch while reading while I only suggested the hand jobs. Compared to me, he at least made an effort to let me feel like there is something else than the sexual stuff between us. I really am bad when it comes to that kind of stuff,_ he thought with a sigh, before his thoughts were interrupted when his friend spoke again.

"So, Harry, don't think, just feel," Hermione advised him, after she had given him a few moments to think about her previous words. "The rest will come to you. And as long as you let yourself be lost in the moment and the feelings, everything will turn out right."

"I hope so. And thank you for opening my eyes, Hermione," he told her and gave a her a huge hug in thanks. "What would I do without you?"

"You most likely would be sharing a room with Ron and have to listen to one of his rants on how Sexual Magic is a devilish thing."

Harry only groaned in answer, before the both of them started laughing.

He groaned once more when Hermione suggested that they should better start on their Transfiguration essay, especially since Harry's weekend was already full enough as it was with Quidditch try-outs and other Sexual Magic things Hermione didn't want to ask Harry about in detail.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Harry had hardly been able to concentrate on his homework, as his thoughts had been centred around how Draco might feel about Harry's lack of personal contact so far. He really hoped that the blond did not feel like a harlot as he feared. Even Hermione had not been able to completely take away his worries, but at least her suggestion to openly speak with Draco about this had given him some calm. "You're an Altair pair. You should be able to talk about those things openly with each other," his friend had said.

Now, Harry was waiting for Draco to finally arrive from his Head Boy rounds, which this year he took together with Hermione. Harry still remembered Hermione's smiling face, when after dinner she and Draco had met in the common room and Blaise had started complaining that he has to take his rounds with Parkinson. The girl obviously was not happy that she had to do her prefect rounds with Blaise instead of Draco like before.

Hermione thought that this was the perfect opportunity to get back at him for his stupid jokes. "Maybe you should have tried harder to become the _Head_ Boy, Blaise? Then you may have gotten the chance to receive a blow job from the _Head_ Girl while walking up to the Astronomy tower?" she teased him. "But then, I prefer snobbish blonds over bratty brunets anyway," she said with a shrug before turning around and dragging Draco with her towards the exit. "Have fun with Parkinson," she called back in an overly-joyous tone over her shoulder when she was nearly out of the room.

Harry had decided to use the time the three were busy to figure out how he could approach Draco with his newest worry. As nice as it was that Hermione had been able to solve his problem with the cleaning charm, he did not know what to do about the new one Hermione's use of the whore metaphor had created.

_When I had applied for the Altair electives, I thought that the whole thing would be regarded as a simple school assignment by both parties. Nothing personal. And now Hermione tells me that it is to be personal—feelings involved and all. God damn it, why can't my life be easy for once?_ Harry asked himself. He had already realised that Hermione was right. It was hard to accept the change of perspective though. Especially since he had not expected to behave like boyfriends with his Altair partner who once had been his school yard rival.

_It will be hard to accept to behave like the two of us are boyfriends. A_t the thought, Harry's face turned red._ Over the last days I've only just gotten halfway comfortable with the knowledge that I will have sex with Draco. And now, I also have to get used to kissing and cuddling and in general behaving all lovey-dovey with him?_ He asked himself, not knowing what to do about it.

_It's not like Draco isn't attractive, _Harry had to admit to himself._ Far from it actually, but still he certainly would not have been my first choice when it came to boyfriends. But it seems like the best way to ensure that Draco doesn't feel like a whore would be to treat him as if he actually were my boyfriend. At least inside our rooms. I don't think that he would be thrilled if I started to holds hands with him and all that rubbish girls like to demand from their boyfriends. _

_Though, kissing seems to be a necessity if Hermione is to be believed. Though, how one can be so intimate with someone else while they aren't together is a riddle to me. If you're close, you're either friends or boyfriends, but as friends do not sleep with each other, how can one regard their partner as anything but their boyfriend/girlfriend? Women and their beliefs are hard to understand sometimes_, Harry thought with a smile_. I just hope that kissing Draco will be better than kissing Cho. I can do without someone crying while kissing._

_Maybe I should think about a pet name for him? _He wondered to distract himself from thoughts of kissing the blond._ Isn't this what boyfriends are supposed to do? Nothing as bad as Draky-poo as Blaise said Parkinson liked to call him. Maybe simply Dray? Or better yet Ray? It at least would fit his hair, which always seems to shine in the sunlight._

_Or in the moonlight, _Harry added as he saw Draco walking into their living room and the few rays of the waxing moon were reflected by Draco's hair and made it look even paler than usual.

**TBC...**

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN: **Sorry for the cliffhanger. But I wanted to get this chapter out.

**Next:** "The way of kisses II". Now with some actual kissing in it. Expect it to turn out to be too short, in this case the next chapter will be called "The way of massages" instead. Expect an update in middle/late October as right now I want to finish my one-shot Dragon Pox.


	18. Chapter 17 – The way of kisses II

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written stuff~**_

**Warning: **let's just say they aren't only kissing in this chapter – no full lemon yet though and some fluff in the beginning

**Beta: **Makoto Sagara

**AN: **Thank you all for the new reviews, alerts and favourites. By the way, the poll on my profile will be closed at the end of October/early November, so vote now if you want to tell me with whom Hermione should be together with.

And sorry for the long wait. Normally I try to not let my readers hang on for so long at a cliffy, but it couldn't be helped. The start of the new university term was rather time consuming. But as a thank you for your patience I included a "nice" scene at the end of the chapter, which is rather long for my standard. ;)

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><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 17 – The way of kisses II -~-~-**

"Hey," Draco said tiredly as a way of greeting. He was exhausted from his rounds. Walking up and down from the dungeon to the Astronomy tower in one night in addition to the actual rounds on the three upper floors plus the Astronomy tower would have worn anyone out. _Maybe next time I can ask if I can borrow Harry's invisibility cloak?_ Draco contemplated. _Though, I would need to ask Granger to use the boys' exit instead. I can live without being thrown down the stairs, especially in the Gryffindor dorm._

"Hey," was Harry's timid answer. Even though he had had two hours for himself, he had been so busy thinking about what the new behaving like boyfriends situation would mean for him that he had not had enough time to come up with a plan to start discussing the topic with Draco.

Therefore, Harry went with the Gryffindor way of things, rushing out, "I'm-sorry-that-I-made-you-feel-like-a-whore."

"Sorry? Would you care to repeat that?" Draco asked him. With how exhausted he was he had not understood more than 'I'm' and 'whore'.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Harry said his apology once more, this time a bit more slowly. "I'm sorry, Draco, that I made you feel like a whore."

Draco only chuckled in response. "You worry too much, Harry. Trust me; you did not make me feel like a whore at all. Why would you even think something as stupid as that?" he asked Harry, curious about the other's reasoning. Mentally he added, T_hough, I would not mind to be your whore,_ remembering his Tuesday evening's wanking fantasy. But his memory was interrupted by Harry speaking again.

"Ehm..." Harry began, his right hand going through his hair, "I talked with Hermione today and she made me realise that what we have is not simply a homework assignment, a deed to be fulfilled. That one should ensure that their partner doesn't feel like they're being used, like they're nothing more than a prostitute. And thinking back, I felt like I had done just that with you instead of showing you that I cared about your feelings too. I mean, it was me who proposed the hand jobs while you instead suggested that we simply cuddle. So, in the end you were the one who acted the way she had described how it actually should be—as her explanation made it sound more like the two of us should be behaving more like we're boyfriends instead of just wanking partners." Harry ended his speech, turning a bright shade of red and looking away from Draco and out of the window instead.

"That may be the case, but, seriously, Harry, do you really think that I wouldn't have said something if I truly felt used? Really, when have I ever not pointed out something I didn't like that you've done?" Draco asked rhetorically.

"I'm not saying that what Hermione told you is incorrect, as most Altair pairs usually are very close," he continued with his speech, "over half of them marry each other afterwards actually." He gave a small chuckle. "But I think we both know that we aren't like any other pairs. We were not simply classmates or even friends before this. We fought since the beginning of first year. So, of course, it won't be all sunshine and roses for us.

"I won't say that we shouldn't be close, but I believe that it is only natural that it would take more time for the two of us to get to this point than it takes the other couples. It will take some time for us to get to know each other behind the titles of 'the Boy Who Lived' and 'the One Who Led Death Eaters Into Hogwarts' and see that we are not the two silly boys from years before.

"And if you ask me, for us we are doing pretty well so far. Two years back, we most likely wouldn't have made it through the first night without at least one of us landing in the hospital wing. So, stop worrying; everything is fine between us," Draco ended his speech having walked over to Harry and knelt down besides the other boy's armchair. "Alright?" he asked, touching one of Harry's arms.

"Ehm...Yeah," Harry said, relieved that he had not made Draco feel used. _Didn't Hermione say that we have a past to overcome? And if I can be sure about something, then it is that Draco has never been afraid to say it when he didn't like what I have been doing. _

"Good," the blond said, before he teasingly added, "And if you still believe that either of us feels like they're not cared for, we could always act more like a couple if it would make you feel better."

"I would like that," Harry murmured shyly, turning even redder than before. Draco was hardly able to catch what Harry had said. He only heard it because he was so close to the other boy. "How should we behave then?" Harry asked Draco. Even if he had been in a relationship with Ginny before, he was still self-conscious. After all, it had been the experienced Ginny who had taken the leading role during their short time together.

"Ehm...maybe we could start with...kissing each other?" the blond suggested, sounding unusually insecure for him. Draco feared that his suggestion might lead to Harry feeling uncomfortable. Luckily, this was not the case.

"Alright," Harry answered, blushing once again. Even now, where he knew what would happen and he felt more confident, he still was nervous about the kiss. Though, that did not hinder his anticipation for the event.

Getting up from his kneeling position, Draco stepped even closer to Harry's armchair before he leaned down towards Harry. Taking Harry's face into his right hand, Draco slowly moved his own face towards Harry, giving the other boy enough time to change his mind. When Harry's brilliant green eyes were still staring into Draco's grey ones, the blond leaned in to close the final inch which still separated them and his pink lips met Harry's in a soft kiss.

When Draco's lips met his own, Harry closed his eyes. Feeling how Draco's lips moved against his own, he waited a moment before he slowly responded. The kiss was different from the ones he had before. It definitely was not as wet as the disastrous one he had shared with Cho in fifth year.

The kiss was different from Ginny's kisses too. While hers had been soft and desperate/aggressive, this one was soft, but at the same time also firm without feeling demanding—as Draco did not want to use his tongue in fear of scaring Harry. All in all, it felt far more right than the ones he had shared with Ginny. Though, Harry could not decide if this was the case because it was a guy he was kissing or because Ginny turned out to be like a sister to him. _Either way_, _kissing Draco is better than kissing girls. Way better, _was all Harry thought when Draco stopped kissing him.

Draco himself had enjoyed the kiss. It had not been his first either, as he had been kind of together with Parkinson since the Yule Ball in fourth year and had shared some kisses with the girl. Though, how he even had gotten together with her was a mystery to him now. _Really, how could I have ever liked someone as despicable as Parkinson?_ Draco asked himself after he stopped kissing Harry.

Draco was happy to notice that Harry's eyes were still closed and that Harry still had a nice blush on his face. And by how Harry was licking his lips, Draco gathered that the dark-haired boy had enjoyed the kiss also. _So, maybe there is hope that we can do it again? _Draco thought, hopefully.

When Harry opened his eyes, he did not disappoint Draco. Still in a daze from the kiss, he asked, "Can we do that again?", already missing the feeling of Draco's soft lips on his own.

"Can't you get enough of my excellent kissing skills?" Draco teased back, ruffling Harry's black hair. Though, to tell the truth, Draco had liked the kiss as well, even if he would have liked it ten times better if they could have had a proper kiss with tongue and all, but he feared that it would have overwhelmed Harry. The boy was shy enough in anything remotely sexually related as it was.

For him, kissing Harry had been bliss, even if the kiss had been rather tame for his standard. However, Draco could not say that he did not like the development. It was a first step for both of them to maybe become more. And what he had seen of the real Harry so far had made him interested in something more. He would not say that he was in love or anything like that. He simply found Harry attractive and thought that he also had a nice personality.

"Oh, no, I simply don't want to be scolded later by Hermione for not having done my Basic homework properly," Harry said jokingly, trying to justify his request to himself. Sometimes speaking before thinking was not a good thing to do. "We are required to get more acquainted with each other after all."

"In this case, I will gladly oblige you. Though, it would be nice if you could refrain from mentioning her—or anyone else for the matter—next time. It ruins the mood, you know," was all Draco said before he leaned in again to give Harry another kiss.

This time the kiss lasted longer than the first time and Harry did not hesitate to react to Draco right from the start—unlike the last time. Still, the kiss was still rather shy and soft.

_Maybe I should thank Granger tomorrow?_ Draco asked himself, really liking how things were progressing. _Without her, I surely would have not gotten a Harry willing to kiss me._

"You know what? I think, that I can get used to the whole behaving more like boyfriends situation," Harry told Draco after their second kiss ended.

"Me too," was all Draco said before he walked over to his armchair, the exhaustion of the rounds finally catching up with him.

Seeing Draco nearly falling asleep, Harry got up from his armchair and guided the blond to their bathroom, so that the both of them could get ready for bed. Both of their lips were still tingling with the sensation of the shared kisses and the feel of the other boy's lips.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Friday, 5th September 1997, Room Zero

It was Friday evening after dinner and Draco was relaxing on the window-seat in the living room, looking out over the Quidditch pitch. Draco was thinking back about the afternoon, when he in the end had decided to not try out for the Seeker position on his house team. In between his Head Boy duties and the different Sexual Magic projects he had to do in his free time, Draco knew that he did not have time for Quidditch, especially since he needed to do his Sexual Magic homework together with Harry, who as the captain of Gryffindor's team would have Quidditch practice three times a week himself.

Harry had told him that he hoped that he would be able to schedule the Gryffindor's team practice for Tuesday and Thursday morning while Draco was in Runes and the third one for Friday afternoons. Though, this still depended on who would make the team tomorrow. Not everyone could have a free period at the same time as Harry and Ron.

If the worst came to happen, then Harry would need to hold practice on one of the weekend days and the other two during the week in the afternoons. If Draco had continued to be on his house team, then they only would have one afternoon during the week for their Sexual Magic homework and either Saturday or Sunday. So, yeah, Draco was not overly sad to not have tried out. It is not like the new Seeker, a brunet fifth year, was not competent. Though, even Draco knew that he would not stand a chance against Harry. But who had ever beaten him?

Draco had been honoured though, when after the try-outs—which he of course had watched—the current captain had asked him to be the reserve Seeker if anything should happen to their current one. Draco happily accepted, as he would not be required to go to the practice but this way he had a reason to ask Harry for a practice match from time-to-time. He had always wondered who would win if the two of them would only play a Seeker's game instead of a Quidditch match with Bludgers and all.

Thinking of Harry reminded him that he had still not confronted the other boy about his spying. When he had been sitting together with Blaise in the stands, he had felt like Harry was there. Looking around discreetly, he found that a bit to the right in front of him, hidden under the seats, parts of worn out and new shoes were showing. He gathered that they belonged to Weasley and Harry, who most likely where under the latter's invisibility cloak, trying to spy on the new players. Draco had decided to not say a thing then or even attempt to break Harry's nose like at the beginning of last year. _It's not like he could not have simply taken a pair of Omnioculars and watch the try-outs from here,_ Draco thought. The window gave one a perfect view of the pitch and with the Omnioculars one would be able to see the players clearly. _Maybe I should spy on their try-outs in turn from here tomorrow,_ Draco mused. _It would be only fair after all. _

Thinking about Harry reminded Draco of the new situation he found himself in. It wasn't like he hadn't enjoyed the chaste good morning and good night kisses Harry had shyly given him after their first kiss last night, though Draco could not decide if he liked how this made the line all blurred.

On the one hand, he liked that he was able to kiss Harry whenever he wanted, as kissing Harry seems to be his new favourite pasttime. On the other hand though, Draco did not like how they were starting to show affection to each other while he could not be sure if Harry really meant them or if it was only a part of getting closer and calming his consciousness, as Draco was not sure if Harry was over the whole feeling-like-a-whore comment. Draco just hoped that if either of them started to have real feelings for the other, they would be able to express them before things grew even more complicated.

_I can't wait for Harry to come back from his talk with Weasley, _Draco thought, anxious for Harry to return from the Gryffindor common room. _I'm surprised that after Weasley's outburst on Monday the two of them don't mind spending so much time together already. Though, Weasley always seemed to be the strategist in the Gryffindor team, even if Harry is the captain. Trust those two to forget all about their differences if Quidditch is involved. _With this final thought, Draco began reading the assigned chapters for Potions, waiting for Harry to come to their room.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"Shall we?" Draco asked, getting up from his seat and walking towards Harry, who had just come back from the Gryffindor tower. With how much Ron had to say about all the different players he had heard to want to try out, it had taken the redhead until shortly past ten to tell Harry all the pros and cons for each of them and who would be best for the team.

The reason why he had been so anxious for Harry's return was that Harry once again had proposed that they try out something sexually. After kissing Draco shyly good morning, Harry had asked if Draco would be open to a "Trial run" so to speak. Harry was a bit anxious if the kisses would be able to calm him down enough while they had sex. Also, Harry was still insecure about his blow job skills. When he told Draco that he feared that giving an actual person a blow job would be different than giving one to a dildo, Draco had agreed to Harry's suggestion.

Besides, neither of them had received a blow job so far. So, they did not know which of them would be best suited to receive one while brewing the Lloj potion. Therefore, this "Trial run"—as Harry had phrased it—would not only give them a chance to get comfortable with kissing each other while being otherwise intimate, but also allowed them to test out their blow job skills in real life at both the giving and receiving end. So, in retrospect, Draco was happy that he found out that he was mostly gay before Parkinson came up with the idea to offer him one.

Harry was a bit insecure about his own head skills, him having only received a seven while Draco got a full out ten. In the end, Harry was glad that he also voiced this doubt, as Draco had offered to go first, so that Harry would know what he liked and then only had to apply it to what he would do to Draco. As it had helped with the mutual hand jobs, Harry was hopeful that it would work once again. Besides, it was a boost to his confidence that he had already gotten Draco off once. So, if worse came to worse, he could at least ensure that Draco had an orgasm too, even if it was only achieved through a hand job.

As it was already late and Harry had to get up early the next day for the Quidditch try-outs, the boys decided to shower together. While Draco was not bothered by it at all, Harry still needed the reminder that this was a way to get more comfortable with each other sexually. Even if the both of them were used to groups showers from their Quidditch practices, they still turned away from each other in the spacious shower. Harry because he was a bit uncomfortable and Draco because he did not want Harry to catch him staring at his naked body. Though, Harry decided that he could get used to have someone wash his back for him.

Both of them took special care to wash their cocks, neither wanting the other to have something dirty in their mouths. This was especially true since both of them beforehand had relieved themselves while the other waited outside, so that they would have some privacy while pissing.

After drying their bodies, the two of them did not bother with putting on their sleepwear, as the bed would undress them anyway. Instead, they only dressed in fresh briefs before they brushed their teeth.

When both boys were finished in the bathroom, they went to bed to begin their "homework", so to speak. While they both were setting up the pillows by the headboard, so that they could lean against it during the blow jobs, Draco asked Harry if he would be alright if they also used tonight to practise the cleaning and lubrication charms on each other. After all Professor Greige had said that it was different to cast the spells on a human than to simply clean their practise tubes. Harry agreed, even if he did not like the idea to be so exposed to Draco for the charms to be cast.

With a sigh, Harry lay down on his back and moved his legs towards his chest, so that Draco would have enough room for the wand movement to cast the spells successfully. _Don't worry; Draco knows what he is doing. After all he cast the spells perfectly on his first try,_ Harry thought to calm himself. His face was already as red as Ron's hair.

_"Colluo culus,"_ Draco said as he cast the cleaning spell. Harry felt a tingling sensation in his anus, but otherwise nothing happened.

"And did it work?" Draco asked him.

"I think so," was Harry's unsure answer, before Draco cast the lubrication charm, "_Praeunctus culus._" This time, Harry felt how something cold was spread inside of him, but it wasn't cold enough to make him shudder.

After that the both of them were still, not knowing how to proceed from there. The idea to practise the spells too was spontaneous and they had not planned ahead what to do with a lubricated Harry. In the end, it was surprisingly Harry who spoke up, "Maybe we could use this to loosen me a bit more for tomorrow?" he asked, his face as red as a tomato.

Draco agreed and offered to get Harry a small plug his father had bought for him at Timber and Bonker's. This way, Harry would be able to get used at the feeling of something inside him, hopefully without being unable to walk or sit on a broom the next morning.

After he offered the plug to Harry, Draco walked out of the room to give him some privacy. Considering how red Harry's face was, he would not have appreciated it if Draco had stayed to watch Harry finger himself. _Even if I would have loved to watch him…but then again I still have tomorrow morning's shower to wank over that image,_ the blond thought while he waited in the living room for Harry to come and get him, no pun intended.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Meanwhile, Harry was glad that Draco had decided to leave the room and give him some privacy. Slowly, Harry turned on his right side and lowered his left hand towards his entrance, timidly entering his index finger.

He was relieved that this time he could enter his whole finger without it meeting faeces. _Finally the damn charm is working,_ Harry thought, while he moved his index finger around to make room for a second one.

Harry was undecided if he should try to locate his prostate or not. Up to now, he had only heard about the pleasure this spot could bring one, but he had never tested it out. In the end, he decided to not do it because he did not want to spoil the sensation the blow job would give him by already being turned on through prostate play. Instead, Harry turned around to lie on his stomach, so that he could slowly insert the plug.

Having the plug inside his ass felt very weird, not bad as it only was a small one, but still he was not used at all to the feeling of being full. _But at least, it didn't hurt as much as I thought to insert the plug,_ Harry thought. The easiness of entering the plug gave him hope that actually having Draco's much larger cock inside of him would not hurt much.

After Harry had composed himself, he slowly got out of the bed and walked towards the living room to get Draco.

"I'm done," Harry called out from the door frame, interrupting Draco's current musings of whether or not to swallow Harry's sperm. Getting up from his armchair, Draco finally decided that he would swallow the semen. _It's not like Harry eats junk food like Weasel does, so it shouldn't taste too gross._

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Back in the bedroom the situation was tense again. To get comfortable and relaxed once more, Draco caressed Harry's hair while he started to kiss his way down from Harry's left eye to his lips. Harry slowly relaxed under Draco's ministration, burrowing deeper into the pillows.

Harry did not even notice that their kiss got more heated as time went by. Unconsciously, he opened his mouth when Draco's tongue gingerly brushed against his lips. Both were so lost in their kisses that Draco only realised the purpose for their kissing again, when Harry's left hand tugged hard on Draco's blond hair.

Reminded of his task, Draco slowly ended the kiss, both of them needing to catch their breath, before he slowly kissed his way down Harry's neck to his chest, and only stopping when he had reached Harry's navel and circled it with his tongue. After Harry let out a wanting moan, Draco moved down towards the other's already partially erect cock.

There, he was enchanted by the tip of the plug which poked out of Harry's ass, begging Draco to take the tip in his hand to fuck Harry with the sex toy. Restraining himself before he would do something to break the moment they had built, he instead took the tip of Harry's penis into his mouth, pulling another moan out of the other boy at this action.

"Draco," Harry moaned in a hoarse voice, as the blond started to eagerly suck on his tip. As Draco's ministration heated up, so the grip Harry had on Draco's hair tightened. With every suck to Harry's cock and every caress to his balls, Harry's arousal grew.

Draco was pleased to find out that Harry especially liked it when he traced his tongue along the vein of Harry's penis. Though the reaction was topped by how Harry reacted to having the blond deep throat him. Draco only hoped that whatever Harry had hissed out in Parseltongue was his name or something else complimenting his skills.

The blond nearly came himself when he slowly retreated his mouth from the base of Harry's cock to suck once more at the tip, as Harry had reached his breaking point and came hard in his mouth, letting out an even larger string of Parseltongue. _Merlin, Harry looks hot like that, _he thought while he swallowed most of the only slightly bitter tasting fluid.

When Draco was licking his lips to catch the last remains of Harry's sperm, he thought, _It seems like I've finally found my sexual kink: Harry speaking Parseltongue. Thank Merlin that the Dark Lord speaking it never turned me on, _was the last thought the blond had before he got into a kneeling position and watched Harry catching his breath.

"That was..." Harry began when he finally had calmed down, not knowing how to finish the sentence. Good clearly did not justify the feeling at all. So, in the end, Harry decided to finish his sentence with, "Unbelievable", as even great would have been too weak a word for the best orgasm of his life so far.

"I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it as much as I did," Draco said in reply, a smirk present on his face. That made Harry sit up in bed and look at the blond's cock, which was proudly standing up. Harry blushed a deep red; not only because he had been staring at the blond's penis but also because he was surprised that Draco was this aroused because he had given _him_ a blow job and not because the blond had received one himself. _Though, that will change soon,_ Harry thought as he slowly sat up in the bed, preparing to change their positions. Draco's reaction had lifted Harry's spirit up immensely. He was now kind of eager to try it out himself. _It's not like there is much work left for me to do..._Harry thought, taking another quick look at Draco's arousal.

Remembering Draco's last statement, Harry answered the blond, "And I'm just glad that the kissing seems to work for calming and relaxing me." Turning red again, he added, "Or maybe it has something to do with the blow job," his voice getting softer with every word he spoke.

Gathering his Gryffindor courage—or maybe in this case it would be better to call it boldness—together he said, "Come on, it's my turn now," before he shoved Draco down, so that the blond was now lying down on the pillows.

As he had liked it when Draco had kissed him before and thought that copying Draco's previous moves would be a good plan, Harry started his blow job to Draco with exchanging heated kisses with the blond.

Just as before, the two boys were so lost in the kisses that they momentarily forgot why they were kissing. Not that Draco was complaining about the lack of attention his cock got right now. He liked that even if Harry's kissing skills were not perfect that they were far more enthusiastic and spiced than any kiss he had gotten before. It was like a hot flame which grew stronger and stronger with every second their kiss lasted, consuming all the air in their lungs until nothing was left and they had to break apart to catch their breath again.

When Harry finally could breathe more or less normally again, he gave Draco one last chaste kiss on the lips before he took Draco's earlobe into his mouth and sucked on it. When Draco let out a moan, Harry was glad that Draco and Ginny seemed to share their earlobe sensibility. Being even more encouraged by how Draco reacted so far, Harry finally moved on from Draco's face and began to position himself between Draco's open legs.

Even if Harry had already seen Draco's erect cock not only just minutes before, but also close up during their mutual hand jobs, it was still a new sight to him. Harry was surprised that the sight of Draco spread out like this—penis standing proudly erect—not only turned him on more than he had thought it would, but also that he was actually eager to lower his mouth on the other's cock to taste it.

While he used his right hand to get a hold on the blond's cock, his left hand was busy caressing Draco's right side. Slowly lowering his head, Harry took a first, slightly hesitant lick. _The texture is surely different than that of the dildo we had for practice_, he thought, having a penis inside his mouth for the first time.

As Harry had loved it when Draco had traced his main vein with his tongue, he copied the move and was rewarded with a wanton groan form the blond. When he had traced the vein two times and felt like the cock was lubricated enough, he took as much as he could into his mouth and began sucking and moving up and down. The part of Draco's prick he could not reach with his mouth he gripped with his right hand. His left hand was still caressing Draco's side.

Harry did not try out to deep throat Draco, as he had not been able to do it during class with the dildo and he certainly did not want to risk fucking up this blow job, which was going very well in his opinion, because his gag reflex was acting up. While he was licking the tip of Draco's prick, he was contemplating if he at least should follow the blond's action of swallowing the other boy's sperm. In the end the decision was taken from him as Draco came with a scream of "Harry", after he changed the motion of his tongue from up and down to circling the slit of Draco's cock, and Harry had no other choice but to swallow the spunk.

While Draco was busy trying to come back from his orgasm-induced high, Harry—after he had finally taken his eyes away from Draco's face—for the first time noticed that his own cock had gotten aroused again, though not to the point where thinking about, let's say Hagrid or Filch, would not be able to quickly get rid of it, which was what Harry did.

When Harry was crawling towards his side of the bed to go to sleep—he had to oversee a Quidditch try-out the next morning after all—Draco came out of his daze and told Harry, "I think I will start to demand a blow job from you as compensation for me not telling on you for all the times you and Weasley decide to spy on the Slytherin Quidditch team with that cloak of yours."

Draco only laughed when Harry said, "Shit. I knew that the cloak was too small for the two of us."

And so ended their Friday night experience with blow jobs.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN:** I hope you liked the fluffy scene in the beginning and the not so fluffy one in the end. The next chapter is still called "The way of massages" and will be mostly from Draco's POV, and we finally have a lemon. And I hope that with Draco not exposing Harry and Ron spying on the Slytherin try-out that his change of character came across to you.


	19. Chapter 18 The way of massages

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written stuff**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **Lemon

**Beta:** the wonderful Makoto Sagara

**AN: **Thank you for the new reviews, favourites and alerts. Here is the new chapter I mostly wrote on Halloween, waiting for little kids to come and ask for sweets.

Also thank you all for voting on my poll. It is closed now. Most of you want for Hermione to get together with Blaise during the end of this story, so they will be a pair later on.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 18 – The way of massages -~-~-**

**Saturday, 6th September 1997**

While Harry had been up since seven to prepare the Quidditch try-outs which he had set for ten o'clock, Draco had decided to have a leisurely relaxed morning. Instead of eating breakfast in the Great Hall, he ate some cornflakes from the kitchen's cupboard of the living room of Room Zero.

Sitting in his armchair while munching on a spoonful of flakes, his thoughts wandered to Harry. _With how nervous he at first was with the kisses, hand jobs and blow jobs, he more than likely will be even more worried about the actual sex. And if he is tense, it will be very uncomfortable for both of us. _Looking at the bookshelves in front of his armchair, Draco got an idea. _At least some of those books must contain tips on how to best relax Harry, so that he won't be too tense tonight, _the blond thought before he quickly finished his breakfast and began his research.

For this, he planned go through the index of promising book titles to find some reference material. _It's not like I have any experience in it myself, and Professor Greige has not been able to cover this topic until now because of the lesson in blow jobs he pushed forward. Let's hope that I will find something useful in these books_, was his last thought before he took the first promising book from the shelf.

_It's a good thing that we have our own sort of a private little library in here,_ Draco thought some minutes later, while laying aside the book in his hand to his reading stack. _I don't think that I would have been brave enough to go down to the Restricted Section to go and look for books there. With my luck I, would have run into Hermione, or even worse Blaise, or both of them together, considering how close the two of them seem to have become over the last few days_. _Blaise would have been teasing me for weeks about me not knowing how to best prepare Harry and would have make innuendos for the next few months, or years. And Granger would most likely offer to help me research, something which I really_ don't _want. It's alright if Harry is discussing things with her as a friend to get more at ease, but her and me sitting in the library together to find out how I should have sex with him? "_Urgh." Draco shuddered.

After having found some promising books, he decided to settle himself at the window seat instead of the armchair. This way, he would be able to look from time to time how the Gryffindor try-outs were progressing. _It has its perks to have a window overlooking the Quidditch pitch, _Draco thought._ And it's not like Harry hasn't spied on the Slytherin team's try-outs too._

In the end, Draco only found the time to watch the Gryffindor try-outs every once in a while as his attention was occupied by the books he was reading. But at least, after his two hours of research and reading, Draco could say that he now had a good plan of what he would do to make Harry relax. So, with this worry out of the way, he got on his way to the Great Hall, taking a last look out of the window and seeing that Harry was still busy holding the try-outs. _Good for me. I still need some time to prepare everything, _he thought, hoping that Harry would still be on the pitch by the time he came back from lunch.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Harry entered their bedroom at shortly after two—the try-outs having gone until nearly one pm and after his shower he had gone to the kitchens for lunch.

When Draco heard Harry enter, he made his move and set his plan into motion. "Hey, Harry, how does a nice, long, relaxing bath and a back massage afterwards sound to you?"

"Like heaven," Harry answered, totally exhausted after his trip to the tower. He had wished to be able to go through the Slytherin common room to access the Altair common room and not to have to climb all the stairs from the kitchen to the Gryffindor tower after such an exhausting try-out, but neither did he have his invisibility cloak nor the password to the Slytherin common room. Though he had always wanted to try out if the wall would open if he hissed _"Open"_ in Parseltongue right in front of the wall.

"Great. I've already prepared a hot bath for you. I hope you don't mind that I also added a remedies solution—which may smell a bit too strongly of pine, but it is really good for muscle relaxation."

"I don't mind the smell if it does relax my muscles as promised. Actually, I rather like pine scented bath foam. Thank you, Draco," Harry answered him, grateful for such an unexpected and courteous action from the blond. The gesture warmed his heart.

Opening the bathroom door, Harry was instantly engulfed by the pine scent. After closing the door behind him and taking off his clothes, Harry entered the overly large bathtub that was filled nearly to the brim with slightly green water and foam bubbles which had a pale green tint.

Harry let out a dreamy and relieved moan "Hnn" when he was finally fully immersed in the hot water with only his head still above the water line. A shower was well and good if one wanted to get clean after a morning on the Quidditch pitch, but it had nothing against a hot bath. Especially one which also had a relaxing remedies solution in it.

After some minutes of simply enjoying the warm water and feeling how his muscles relaxed, Harry's thoughts began to wander around. At first, he reflected about his morning shower where he had pulled out the plug he had inserted the night before. Luckily, he had been exhausted enough from the blow job that the unusual feeling of the plug had not prevented him from sleeping. But, in the daylight, where he was walking around, even if it was only from the bed to the bathroom, the weird feeling was back. Harry did not believe that he would ever be able to get used to feeling like he had to shit when he was walking around.

Though, Harry could not deny that the plug had done its job, as he had been able to insert two of his fingers without any trouble when he fingered himself in the shower. And due to the cleaning charm from the night before, his fingers gratefully had not met any faeces. So, Harry had been able to search for his prostate and experience the effect of stimulating it had for the first time. The only drawback the use of the plug had was that Harry's ass had been a bit sensitive as it was unused to the intrusion. But luckily, it wasn't as strong as it would have been if he had had sex with Draco and Harry had been able to forget about it once he was in the air and his full concentration was on the players wanting to make it onto the team.

Cracking his spine and letting the muscle remedies do their job, his thoughts soon drifted towards last night and how he had felt overly exposed. Since the new term had started, it had not been the first time that he had had to realise that he had not thought things through before he had signed up for the Altair electives, even if everything had seemed clear to him at that time. It seemed like once again his saving-people-thing had made him act—like the brash Gryffindor he was—without considering the consequences his decisions had.

Even if he—for the sole purpose of hopefully being able to brew the Shërim Mendjen—had hoped to get a male partner, his mind still seemed to have been stuck on the idea of how sex would be for a heterosexual couple. There, it normally was the woman who had to expose herself to the man during the sexual act. So, Harry's mind had never considered the possibility of him being the one in such an exposing and submissive position.

_I really need to stop rushing into these things, or someone really will be hurt by my actions,_ Harry thought, especially remembering the whole whore-scene from two days prior. Taking a deep breath, Harry immersed fully into the water, letting the hot water on his face relax him again. Emerging, Harry wiped the water from his eyes and stretched his back.

_If women can be easy about the whole thing, why can't I be too?_ Harry asked himself. _It's not like they are going around complaining about it. So, if Ginny and even the bossy Hermione are more than okay with being in such a position, I should be okay with it too. What had Uncle Vernon always said? 'What a woman can do, a man can do better'. So, toughen up, Harry. Besides last night turned out better than expected, _Harry pleasantly remembered. Deciding that half an hour of lying in the bathtub was enough, Harry stepped out and dried himself with one of the fluffy towels, before he got dressed in his clothes again.

Back in the bedroom, he was met by Draco sitting on the edge of the bed with a bottle held in in the blond's right hand. Turning his head towards Harry, Draco asked him to lie down on the bed, so that he could give Harry the promised back massage.

After a short moment of hesitation, the temptation the massage offered was too strong for Harry to not comply with Draco's request, even if it meant that he was exposing himself in front of the blond. But then again, he had pondered about exactly this whole being exposed thing in the tub only some minutes ago and he was not one to back down from his new resolution so easily.

After Harry had gotten comfortable with his head resting on his folded arms, Draco moved his body so that he was sitting beside Harry's bare ass, both of their clothing having vanished as soon as their whole bodies were positioned on the bed. Draco had contemplated during dinner using a towel to cover up Harry's ass, so that his intimate body parts would be covered. Though in the end, he had decided against it as it would make what he had planned to do harder. How would Draco ease Harry and cast the necessary preparation spells if he had no free access to Harry's body?

Draco took out his wand and cast the cleaning and lubrication spells, before he even started with the massage as he knew that Harry would tense at those actions. Though, Draco was surprised when Harry's reaction to the spells was not to tense up—at least not as much as Draco had though he would—but to raise his head from his folded arms to let out a shrieked "Hey!" in a voice which was slightly higher than normal.

"Calm down. I'm only casting them now to not spoil the mood later on," Draco informed Harry in a calm voice, before Harry could question his actions further.

Hearing Draco's explanation, Harry finally realised Draco's intention for the bath and the massage—not that the spells themselves had not been a big give away. _His motive was not to relax me from the try-outs but to rather relax me for the sex, _he thought, feeling a bit hurt. Suddenly, the gesture of the bath and massage seemed to have lost part of their heart-warming ability with the knowledge that the purpose behind them was to prepare Harry for sex. _And I thought that we would wait for __**it**__ until tonight?_

When Draco noticed that Harry had stiffened at his words—or more precisely at the meaning behind them—he moved a bit forward on the bed so that he was now situated at the level of Harry's chest, before he spoke again, "Don't worry, Harry. I won't be doing anything you don't want me to do. I just thought that this would be a good idea to not only relax you from the try-outs but to also make the whole penetration easier on you. I've read that it will be less painful if you aren't tensed up. So, a massage seemed like the best thing to do to make you relax."

Unconsciously Draco's left hand had wandered into Harry's hair, where he began caressing the other's head. Both Draco's words and the hand in his hair had calmed Harry's previous uneasiness—especially with the admission that Draco had not purely done it for the sake of sex and that the blond had only Harry's own comfort in mind seemed to change the feeling the massage invoked in Harry. _It's not like it will make much of a difference if it happens now or later. Besides I prefer for it to not be too painful. And if a massage and bath will do the trick, who am I to not go along with it?_ So, with a nod of his head and a mumbled "Okay," Harry allowed Draco to start with the not-so-innocent back massage.

Settling back into his previous position by Harry's ass, Draco remembered that he had forgotten to lubricate his prick. Even with Harry's channel being lubricated, it would be better to be on the safe side and have his cock covered in lube as well. To not startle Harry he silently cast the normal lubrication spell on his cock. Afterwards, he poured some of the apricot oil he had gotten from their Ritual Magic room into his hands to warm it up, before he put both of his hands on Harry's back and started with the massage.

Slowly, Harry relaxed under Draco's ministrations, forgetting about the impending sex as all the knots he had acquired in the morning were worked out by the blond's strong hands. When Harry started humming, the blond decided that it was time to start with the next step of his plan—namely to add some kisses to the massage.

Draco was relieved that Harry's only reaction to him kissing the other's neck was to hum even more in contentment. Encouraged by the positive reactions the blond did not hesitate to give in to his urge to nuzzle his nose into Harry's neck, taking in the pine scent of the bath together with the apricot scent of the massage oil and something which was just Harry.

Slowly, Draco kissed his way down Harry's back, his hands moving ahead of his lips. When the blond had reached Harry's ass with his hands he slowly inserted one finger into the other's opening. As Harry was already loosened up from the plug he had used last night, the intrusion did not hurt at all. Harry seemed not even to register what Draco was doing to him as he had started to fall into a light slumber, not having been so relaxed in a long time.

The second finger Draco entered did not go in as smoothly as Harry's own had in the morning. Harry's ass had tightened again over the course of the morning. Still, even the insertion of the second finger wasn't enough to make Harry tense up. Though, while the blond was loosening up Harry even more by scissoring his two fingers and moving in and out of the hole, Harry slowly came back from his relaxed state to reality.

Harry did not know what surprised him more: Draco softly asking, "Ready?"; feeling the blond's slick and aroused penis pressing against his right ass cheek, as Draco was leaning forward to be able to whisper into Harry's ear; or feeling Draco's fingers still being buried inside his ass.

Draco noticed how Harry had stiffened, as his fingers in Harry's ass were being gripped more tightly. Breathing in and out again to calm down again, Harry slowly nodded his head and said, "As ready as I can be," in a soft, nervous voice.

"Are you sure?" Draco asked as he still felt on his fingers that Harry wasn't completely relaxed again.

"Yeah."

Slowly extracting his fingers, Draco started to instruct Harry how to get into position. "Since I've read that it is usually less painful if it is done from behind, I thought that we could do it with you on your hands and knees, or at least with your hips raised with some pillows."

Now free of Draco's fingers, Harry turned around to lie on his back, so that he could face the blond. He was unsure if he should go along with Draco's plan or not. On the one hand, he would like it if it would be as painless as possible. But on the other hand, it did not seem to feel right to Harry to do it in such a position where they were unable to face each other. Somehow, he was reminded of the whore analogy.

"Could we do it while facing each other?" Harry asked, having decided that he preferably would be in a bit more pain than to feel used.

"If you want to, of course," Draco answered.

"Thank you," Harry said, to which the blond replied, "There is nothing for you to thank me for, Harry. Though, it may be wise to still prop up your hips with a pillow or two."

Positioning himself between Harry's open legs, Draco leaned down, covering the brunet's body with his own. Resting his weight on his left arm, Draco used his right hand to caress Harry's hair once more while he started a long, soft kiss.

The kiss seemed to be a work of magic in itself as it made Harry forget his fears and allowed him to simply get lost in his feelings and in Draco. Reaching out both his hands towards Draco's head, Harry used his right hand to bring down the blond's face to his own, so that he could kiss Draco once more.

Soon their kisses got more heated, and the grip Harry had on Draco's hair tightened while their breathing got faster. When Draco moved his lips away from Harry's, the other boy let out a displeased sound before it turned into a wanton moan as Draco's lips attacked one of Harry's nipples. From there on, the blond mostly repeated the trail he had followed when he had given Harry a blow job the other night.

They both were panting when Draco's mouth and lips finally reached Harry's cock. After giving a quick lick to the aroused penis to taste the pre-cum present there, Draco moved his head up again to give Harry another breath-stealing kiss and asked in a husky voice, "Ready?"

"Yeah," Harry rasped in response, not bothered by the lingering taste of his own sperm on the blond's lips.

Together, the both of them took a deep breath before Draco slowly entered Harry.

Even with all the precautions they had taken, in the end, fingering and sleeping with a thin plug did not wholly prepare Harry for Draco's—in comparison—much larger cock. Therefore, Harry shut his eyes in pain after the first inch of Draco's prick was inside him.

Draco, who had been watching Harry's face attentively, once again settled his weight on his left forearm to be able to caress Harry's hair and face and thus calm the other boy with his action and his whispered words, "Shh, it's all right, Harry. It will get better soon."

Even more slowly than before, Draco slid the remaining inches into Harry's body, constantly whispering reassurances into the other's ear while he loved how it felt to be inside the other male. The new tightness nearly made him lose control, though he firmly fought against his instinct to just ram into Harry as he did not want to hurt the other.

Harry, in the meantime, was trying to stay relax by taking slow, deep breaths. The pain was not too much for him to want to stop the process but still it required some time to get used to it. When Draco was finally completely inside the brunet, he paused to give Harry time to adjust to the new feeling.

After some moments and more slow, deep breaths, the pain did finally ebb so that only a small glimmer remained. Giving Draco a reassuring nod to signal that it was okay for the blond to finally move, Draco was glad that he could. Harry just hoped that the movement would not set off another round of pain.

To Harry's relief Draco moving out of him was far more painless than him moving in, so that Draco soon was able to find a rhythm the both of them enjoyed without having to pause to give Harry the chance to adjust to any additional pain, which he luckily did not feel.

After the first few thrusts, the two boys started to exchange heated kisses in-between moans and groans of pleasure. When Draco felt that he was close to completion, his hand wandered towards Harry's cock to bring the other over the bridge together with him.

In the end, it was not the tightening of Harry's ass as the other boy came that made Draco come, but the brunet's cry of _"Oh God, Dracooo" _in Parseltongue that triggered the blond's release with a moaned "Harry!"

Harry could not say what brought on his own ejaculation—as Draco's own cry of his name, the constant stimulation of his prostate, and Draco's hand jacking him off all aroused him. Most likely, it was the combination of all three things that made him orgasm in the end.

When both boys came out of their post-orgasm heights, Draco rolled off Harry's sweaty body to cool down besides each other. Even if Draco would have loved to take a shower, he was too exhausted to get out of the bed anytime soon. And an afternoon nap sounded rather inviting to him at the moment.

"Sleep?" he asked Harry, when he had gotten his breath back.

"Yeah," Harry answered tiredly, looking at Draco's face and liking the just shagged look the blond's hair was announcing.

In response, Draco opened his arms in invitation for Harry to cuddle up to him. When Harry did not show any signs of moving anytime soon, he added, "It is not like we do not end up like this every morning anyway."

"Not true," Harry answered in a childish protest, pouting and seemingly forgetting all about his own previous tiredness for the moment. "We did not wake up cuddled together on Thursday."

"Ah, but we did," was Draco's comeback in the same arrogant voice he had used in first year when he had offered his hand of friendship to Harry on the train. "You only did not notice it because you were sleeping in while I had to get up for the morning classes and I was kind enough to not wake you up too."

Draco had actually been surprised that he had been able to get out of the bed without waking up Harry during the process, considering how intertwined they had been that morning.

"Hmpf," was all Harry said, before he finally moved to lie down in Draco's arms, the want to sleep greater than the want to quarrel. It was not like Harry didn't want to be close to the other male as he knew that the blond made a very comfy pillow, but he felt like he needed some alone time to process the previous event and how he felt about it besides it having been wonderfully satisfying in the sexual compartment.

_But it seems like Draco is one of those people who likes to cuddle after sex. Who would have thought that of the Slytherin Ice Prince?_ Harry thought, amused. _My musings will have to wait until tonight. Sleep is more important now._

Draco was not bothered by Harry's primary hesitation as after Harry had obediently lain down on his chest the brunet began to cuddle into his chest like he had done the first morning when he had believed that Draco had been a pillow.

After both of them had gotten comfortable, they let themselves drift towards the land of Morpheus, not waking up before five in the afternoon, still cuddled up.

**AN2: **Please tell me what you think about this chapter.

**Next:** Draco's turn to bottom.


	20. Chapter 19 Payback is a b

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written stuff**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **Lemon, the second and swearing

**Beta:** Makoto Sagara

**AN: **Sorry for the very long delay of this short chapter. Not only was I busy working on my one-shot Dragon Pox, but I also had a lot to do for university and bake some Christmas cookies. Let's hope that the next chapter won't take as long.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 19 – Payback is a b... -~-~-**

**Saturday, 6th September 1997**

"Urgh," Draco groaned when he woke up at three after five, feeling all sticky. Harry, who was still sleeping in the blond's arms, was woken up by the other boy's movements.

Harry too let out an "Urgh," when he noticed their current state of filthiness. Not only were they smelling of sweat, which they had built up during sex and had not washed off yet, but also the brunet's stomach was stuck together with the blond's leg due to Harry's dried cum.

"Shower?" Draco asked, to which Harry agreed with a nod and a sleepy, "Yeah."

Slowly they got disentangled from each other and out of the bed. With their clothes―or in Harry's case towel―back on, they moved towards their spacious shower. Once there, they removed their clothes. Harry let out another groaned "Urgh," when he felt something dripping out of his ass. It seems like gravity has run its course and forced Draco's cum, which was still inside Harry, to run out.

"I think I need another cleaning charm before I put my clothes back on," Harry told Draco as they stepped into the shower.

"Why?" Draco asked, clueless to the brunet's dilemma, as he turned on the shower on a comfortable temperature for both of them.

"Because your spunk is dripping out of me, you idiot," Harry answered, giving the blond a light slap on the head for his stupidity, while he turned red-faced because of his current situation.

"Oops," was the blond's abashed response before his mood changed and he added "Sorry, I guess," not being sorry at all, as he rather liked the image of his sperm running out of Harry's ass and covering the brunet's thighs.

Afterwards, only the sound of the running water was heard in the bathroom for the rest of their shower as they both were busy washing themselves, not wanting to talk for their own different reason—exhaustion, shyness, embarrassment and arousal being some of them. Though, if the two of them had not been so lost in their own thoughts, they would have noticed that at some point before they faced each other to wash each other's backs, they both had sprouted a semi-erect cock—a result of them thinking about their previous activities.

Harry was especially embarrassed that he was, for the first time, turned on by the thought of doing something sexual with another person. Up until now, his erotic fantasies had always been faceless bodies, not someone he knew and saw on a regular basis. That the star of his sexual fantasy/memory was currently standing naked and wet right next to him was not helping his predicament. _Thank Merlin for Filch and Mrs Norris,_ Harry thought as he turned around to face Draco, with the semi-hard on mercifully gone without the blond having noticed Harry's problem―not that Draco would not have offered to help the other boy with said problem.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Back in the bedroom—both boys only clad in a towel—Draco grabbed his wand from his bedside table. In the meantime, Harry got back into the bed, positioning himself on his hands and knees to give the other boy the best access to his asshole. No words were spoken between them, as they weren't necessary because they knew what would happen next.

After Draco had successfully cast the cleaning charm on Harry, he had been tempted to follow it with the lubrication charm. Not only because he would have loved a second round, but also because—up to now and Blaise spiked tea aside—he had always cast these two spells in succession. Thus, it had become a habit to follow the cleaning charm with the lubrication spell. Luckily, he was just able to stop himself. Draco did not believe that Harry would have appreciated the notion. Especially considering that Harry had let out a small pained hiss when he had walked towards the bed. However, the blond could not resist to give the other boy a smack on his nice and firm ass, while announcing, "All done, honey."

"Fuck you," Harry muttered under his breath. _The audacity that Draco has to simply slap my ass, _Harry thought._ We will see what he thinks of it when he is the one whose ass is sore._

"Tomorrow, Harry. Tomorrow," Draco, who had heard Harry's exclamation, answered in a promising voice, the second 'tomorrow' spoken with a wishful undertone.

Inside their walk-in closet, Draco had a hard time hiding his smirk from Harry when the blond saw how the other boy struggled with dressing in a pair of jeans. _It seems like I have thoroughly fucked him_, Draco thought, having a ripping good time when he heard Harry letting out another pained hiss under his breath.

"Stop being all amused about my predicament!" Harry ordered the blond. "Just wait until tomorrow when it is your turn to have a sore ass and spunk dripping out of it."

"I am sure that a sore ass will be a small price to pay for all the fun I will have receiving the soreness," the other boy answered, still smiling.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

When the two boys left Room Zero to go to the Great Hall for dinner, Draco noticed that Harry was walking weirdly down the stairs towards the Altair common room. When he heard Harry's complaint about having to descend even more stairs, the blond offered to let the brunet walk with him to the Great Hall through the Slytherin common room. That way, Harry would only have to ascend a sixth of the staircases he would have to descend from the tower. Thankful for Draco's offer, Harry walked up the stairs again to get his Invisibility Cloak.

While Draco waited for Harry to come back, he walked over to where Blaise was sitting with Daphne Greengrass and some other Slytherins. In retrospect, he would have been better not joining Blaise, because the other boy could once again not refrain making a bad Head Boy joke.

"I see that our dear _Head Boy_ was very busy with his duties this afternoon," Blaise told him with a wink. Because he had spoken very loudly, even Hermione, who was working on her homework three tables away from where Blaise was sitting, looked up and gave Draco a knowing smile. Hermione and Blaise had seen Harry walking down the stairs before the brunet had turned around, so they had a good guess what the two boys had been up to that afternoon.

"Very funny, Blaise. Why don't you make sure that your dear Head Girl also completes all her duties?" Draco shot back in retribution to Blaise's comment and Hermione's knowing smile.

When he saw the rubber, which Hermione had thrown in answer to his comment, flying towards his head, he ducked. "Better start with chastising her for throwing things at innocent classmates," Draco told Blaise, not knowing that Hermione's and Blaise's Lloj potion had showed neon green dots, indicating a like for bondage.

Luckily for Draco, he felt Harry touching his shoulder before Hermione could throw some more things in his direction.

Harry hated that both Blaise and Hermione had either an amused or knowing look as they watched him—supposedly concealed by his Cloak—and Draco walking towards the Slytherin exit. He wondered why they had those looks on their faces, as he had not noticed them watching him walking down the stairs for the first time and thus seeing him limp a bit.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Shortly after midnight, the two boys decided to go to bed. It had been an exhausting day for them with the research and Quidditch session in the morning, the sex in the early afternoon and completing their homework after dinner, all so that they could enjoy their free Sunday.

While Draco soon fell asleep with Harry secure in his arms after practising their newly developed routine of a quick good night kiss, the brunet had a hard time in joining the blond in the land of dreams. One of the reasons why Harry Potter couldn't fall asleep was that his newly acquired sore ass made it very hard for him to find a comfortable sleeping position.

The second and more important reason was that Harry's thoughts were concentrated on this afternoon's events and how he could best repay Draco tomorrow. Even if the blond had been a git about the accompanying soreness in the beginning, he wanted to do his best that Draco would feel as cared for as he had felt today. But Harry did not want to just copy the blond's method of a bath and a massage to make the other boy relax. He wanted to come up with something of his own.

After half an hour of trying hard to come up with some possibilities, only to dismiss one idea after another, Harry was satisfied with the vague plan he had formed. Happy and also excited about the next morning, Harry finally let sleep claim him.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Sunday, 7th September 1997

Harry was very happy that he was the first one to wake up on Sunday morning. He was even happier when he noticed Draco's current sleeping position. The blond was sleeping with his hands crossed behind his head, his long legs spread open and with Harry's head positioned on the right side of his chest. In short, it was the perfect position for what Harry had come up with last night.

Ever so slowly, Harry carefully removed his head from the blond's chest and then started to remove the blanket with even more care, always watching Draco's face to make sure that the other boy was still asleep.

When Draco was finally lying naked in from of him, Harry could not resist using the opportunity to unabashedly study, a.k.a. stare at, the blond's fit body. After his curiosity was satisfied, Harry began with his work. Reaching out to the bedside table, he grabbed his wand to cast the standard lubrication spell on his left hand. After laying his wand down beside him on the bed, he rubbed his hands together to spread the meagre amount of lube on both hands and also to warm up the fluid—after all, he did not want the blond to wake up because of cold lube. Then, Harry gingerly took hold of Draco's morning wood, all the while keeping an eye on the other boy's face.

Slowly, the brunet began to move his hand up and down Draco's half-erect cock. When he felt that the blond was aroused enough, he removed his left hand from the hard shaft and took the tip into his mouth. When sucking the tip for the second time did not wake up the other boy, even if he let out a wanton groan, Harry changed his tactic and licked the slit on the tip instead. This finally had the desired effect of waking Draco up.

Letting go of the cock, he greeted the blond with an impish, "Good morning" and a quick kiss to the other's lips, before he once again took Draco's penis into his mouth. This action resulted in the blond's own, "Good morning", sounding a bit strange because it got mixed with another groan.

Draco couldn't believe that what he thought had been a pleasant wet dream turned out to not be a fabrication of his mind. _Oh, shit, _he thought when the brunet once again licked across the slit of his penis._ Who would have thought that Harry would be bold enough to wake me up with a blow job?__—Scratch that. He _is_ a bloody Gryffindor, _the blond thought before letting out a moan of pleasure, one of his hands finding its way in Harry's unruly hair and letting his mind shut down, only enjoying the pleasure he was receiving from Harry's mouth and hand.

The blond was very close to coming when he suddenly remembered something he had read yesterday, so, after some minutes of enjoying Harry's blow job/hand job skills, Draco suddenly groaned out,"Harry, please stop."

Following the request, Harry let go of the blond's cock. "Have I done something wrong?" he asked the blond, confused and slightly worried. Though, finally looking up at Draco's face, Harry could not deny that the other boy really looked very hot with his bed-hair, one arm crossed behind his head, cheeks flushed from arousal, legs spread open with a very erect penis standing proudly between the pale thighs.

"No, don't worry; everything is okay. I just do not want to cum just yet," Draco explained his request, trying to catch his breath. As Harry still looked confused, he further clarified his reasoning."When I was looking up relaxation methods yesterday morning, I also read that after the bottom comes penetration will hurt for a while because the muscles are all tense."

Realisation finally dawned on Harry. Happy that he had not done anything wrong, but actually had brought Draco close to orgasm, he gladly abandoned the blow job in favour of kissing the blond, excitedly.

From there, everything went smoothly. They exchanged heated kisses, before Harry started to kiss and lick his way down Draco's body. After a final quick kiss to the top of the blond's arousal, Harry leaned away from Draco to grab a pillow, which he placed under the blond's ass. Then, he leaned away again to grab his wand. By the time he had his wand ready to cast the cleaning and lubrication charms, Draco had already moved his knees towards his face.

"Do you prefer to prepare yourself, or should I do it?" Harry asked Draco, after successfully casting both preparation charms, breaking the mood slightly. He did not know if the blond would be at ease with him fingering the other boy, even if he himself had been comfortable with Draco being the one to finger him. So, Harry—inexperienced and unsure of himself—thought it better to ask.

Draco was surprised by Harry's question. Draco was aware that he had to decide quickly to not ruin the mood any further. He knew that watching someone finger themselves was an erotic sight; however, he decided that the fact that Harry even had asked the question showed that the brunet was still insecure about it all. So, the blond's answer was, "You do it. I've prepared you too, so it's only fair that you will prepare me in turn. I am sure you will do a wonderful job."

Harry nodded his agreement before he gingerly inserted the first of his fingers and brought his lips back to Draco's. Even if Harry had already fingered himself, it was a completely new and different experience to do it to someone else. For reasons unknown to him, it felt even more intimate than when he had been in Draco's place just a day ago.

Although Harry wasn't aware of it, one of the reasons why it felt so different was that with Draco so readily allowing Harry to prepare him it showed how much he trusted the other boy. Only a year ago, it would have been unbelievable that the blond would even consider letting Harry anywhere near his private parts, let alone be fingered and latter fucked by his one-time arch-nemesis.

Another reason why it felt different was that for the first time Draco was the submissive one. So far, the other boy had done nothing to gain control during their encounters. Add to it that Draco's left hand was still behind the blond's head and thus as good as immobile, Harry had an unusually submissive Draco Malfoy.

Harry was very glad that he had already experienced being the bottom, so he knew what would feel good. So, after adding the second finger, he began searching for the blond's prostate. After he finally found it and circled the little bundle of nerves a few time, he felt more confident when his action was repaid with a wanton moan from Draco.

Even if the brunet had liked the feeling of having sometime inside of him while simultaneously getting a hand job yesterday, he let the blond's cock stay untouched in remembrance of the other boy's earlier warning of not wanting to come until Harry's cock was inside him―and Draco's penis already looked near to orgasm as it was.

When Harry finally felt that his partner was loose enough, he extracted his fingers and his mouth from the blond, earning a low whimper from the other boy.

"Ready?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Draco hissed out. "And if you do not hurry the fuck up, I will impale myself on your cock," he added, impatiently.

_And I wondered where the cocky brat named Draco Malfoy went_, Harry thought, extremely amused by the blond's impatience. Nonetheless, Harry still took the time to grip his wand again to lubricate his cock―something he had not remembered to do beforehand―before he started to enter Draco's tight hole, directing his prick with his left hand as his right one was busy steadying him.

"_Oh, shit. So tight,"_ Harry moaned in pleasure, unconsciously slipping into Parseltongue.

Only when he was fully inside the other boy did his pleasure clouded mind remember how it had felt to be the bottom. Opening his eyes, which he had not realised he had closed, Harry saw that Draco had his eyes closed and that his face bore a painful expression. Getting a bit panicked, the brunet hurriedly said, "Oh, Draco. I am so sorry. Are you alright?"

Still not opening his eyes, the blond grumbled, "Just give me a minute or two and I will be."

As Draco took some deep breaths, his face relaxed before he finally opened his eyes. "I never would have thought that it would feel so full," he finally said.

"And I never would have thought that it would feel so tight," was Harry's answer.

"Cliché," Draco answered and, with that, they both chuckled at the weirdness of it all.

When they both calmed down again, the blond told Harry to start moving. Soon, Harry's careful slow and short thrusts become faster and longer until he was moving nearly all the way out before he slammed in again. With the newly found rhythm, Harry's left hand wandered to Draco's cock, giving it long, hard strokes with special attention to the tip.

Between heated, clumsy kisses, moans of pleasure and the spare, huskily spoken word or two, they both work towards completion. Finally, the tightness, warmth and friction Draco's body provided was too much for Harry and he came with a moan of _"Ahh, Draco",_ letting go of the other's cock.

Once again, Harry's release triggered Draco's own, milking the other boy's cock dry. Though, in his post-orgasm state, Draco started to wonder if Harry's cry of pleasure in Parseltongue would be enough to make him come without even having been touched.

As Harry came out from his own post-orgasm bliss, his eyes had wandered to his Muggle alarm clock standing on his bedside table. With horror, he realised that it was already shortly before half past eight. With a groan, he lifted himself up and got out of the bed.

"What, no post-sex cuddle?" Draco asked jokingly with a pout on his face when he noticed Harry leaving their bed.

"No, not today," the other boy answered from across the room. "A certain Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain thought that it would be a brilliant idea to hold their try-outs on a Sunday morning at nine. And of course Ron talked me into watching it with him, with me being the Captain and all," Harry explained before he closed the bathroom door behind him.

After a quick shower and piss, Harry re-entered their bedroom to get dressed. On his way to the walk-in closet, he was called over to the bed by Draco. The blond demanded that Harry at least should have the courtesy to cast the Colluo culuscharm on the blond before he left, if he already denied him the post-sex cuddle and one more hour of sleep. As Harry's memory of sperm dripping out was still very fresh in his mind, he complied with the request, before he entered the walk-in closet in search for fresh clothes and Draco got out of the bed to go to the bathroom.

"Well, Draco darling, payback is a blow job followed by a great fuck, isn't it?" Harry teasingly called after the blond, when he noticed out of the corners of his eyes that today was Draco's turn to have a sore ass and walk awkwardly. _Let's see how he will fare. I'm sure this at least will teach him to not make fun of me having a sore ass next time_, Harry thought amusedly before hurriedly getting dressed in his trousers rushing out of the room towards the Great Hall.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN2:** So, who of you correctly guessed that the **"b.." **in the chapter title stands for **"blow job"** and not "bitch"? ;)

**Next: **The boys brew their first Sexual Potion. _And in the meantime feel free to read my one-shot Dragon Pox._


	21. Chapter 20 Brewing the Lloj Potion

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, **~letters and other written stuff**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **citrus fun in the form of Sexual Potion brewing

**Beta: **the brilliant Makoto Sagara _(The delay is entirely my fault for being lazy! Er, strike that, working! Yes, that's it! ~ MS)_

**AN: **_Happy Christmas/Yule and a happy New Year to you all! _I hope you like your belated Christmas present as it is the longest chapter so far.

Also thank you for the new favourites, Alerts and reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did while writing it.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 20 – Brewing the Lloj Potion-~-~-**

"Urgh," Harry groaned out when he let himself slump down on one of the couches in the Gryffindor common room beside Hermione.

Halfway through the Ravenclaw Quidditch try-outs it had started to rain and neither Harry's nor Ron's water repelling charm was as effective as Hermione's. So, when the three hour long try-out was finally over, both boys had been like drenched dogs. And because Ron had wanted to discuss the observations he made right away, Harry had been forced to eat lunch with the redhead in the Great Hall instead of quickly preparing a sandwich in the small kitchen of Room Zero like he wanted.

_At least I'd been able to talk Ron into changing into some dry clothes first,_ Harry thought, getting comfortable on the couch. _Even if it meant having to walk all the way up and down towards the tower. Why he didn't want to simply grab a sandwich from the kitchen and then talk about it in the privacy of the tower, I don't know. Really, the tower is a far safer place to discuss those things than the Great Hall.__Though, considering how much he ate, it probably was because he couldn't carry up enough food from the kitchen to the tower_, the brunet mused, glad to finally be able to sit down beside his best female friend.

"Remind me, again why I let Ron talk me into going to the pitch with him?" he asked Hermione rhetorically. In retrospect, the try-outs hadn't given him anything useful regarding this year's Ravenclaw Quidditch team besides the names of their two new players, which he would have gotten to know soon enough anyway.

"Because it wouldn't have gone over well if Ron had joined you in Room Zero and his and Neville's room would have been out of the question?" she stated matter-of-factly.

"Huh?" Harry asked in confusion, not understanding to what his friend was referring.

"Really, Harry. Are you telling me that even with the very comfy window seat underneath it, you haven't noticed that one of your living room windows provides you with a perfect view of the Quidditch pitch?" she asked him.

Not hearing Harry's "Oh!" or simply ignoring it, she continued. "Even Blaise has been using our window to spy on their try-outs. Though, he was a bit grumpy that he had to stand to the far right side of the window to be able to see the whole pitch. And all the while, he was muttering that it was unfair that your room has a much better view. He even complained how Draco, even though he's not currently on the Slytherin team, should at least have had enough house spirit to invite Blaise over to your room.

"However, after I told him that he should be glad that he at least got assigned to one of the four rooms from which you could see the whole pitch, he shut up. Though, it could have also been because of me telling him that you and Ron were not spying from your room, but actually were out in the stands. He very soon came to realise that inviting Ron to Room Zero wouldn't have gone over well," she said, ending her long speech.

"No, Ron being in there wouldn't have gone smoothly at all," Harry agreed with her. "However, Draco is actually the reserve Seeker this year, even if he doesn't have to go to the practices," he corrected her when she finally allowed him to speak after her long rant.

"I am annoyed though that with all the try-outs being over I can't make use of the window anymore," the brunet said with a little pout. "Except, if I wanted to spy on their practices, but I doubt that I'll have the time for that with the NEWTs and all."

Afterwards, they continued talking about anything that came to their minds, enjoying each other's company in the familiar atmosphere of the Gryffindor common room.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

At a quarter to three, Hermione excused herself, telling Harry that she still had a Potions essay to complete, which reminded him that he too had Potions work to complete. Or to be more precise, he still had the Lloj Potion to brew with Draco for their Sexual Potions class on Wednesday.

Getting up from the comfortable couch in the Gryffindor common room, he walked up the stairs towards the seventh year boys' dorm to enter the Altair common room, from where he made his way up the landing to Room Zero.

Entering the living room, he was glad to find that Draco was already there. The blond was sitting on the window seat and was currently writing a letter to his parents to inform them of that week's events. When he heard Harry closing the door, he looked up from his parchment and asked Harry to please wait some more minutes, so that he could finish his letter before they could discuss how to brew the potion.

To calm his fluttering stomach, Harry decided to make some camomile tea. By the time the tea was ready, Draco had already finished writing his letter.

"So," Harry began, "how are we going to brew the Lloj potion?"

"I don't know," Draco answered, glad for the camomile tea Harry passed him as his nerves were nearly as bad as Harry's. "According to our textbooks, it doesn't make a difference which of us does what," he said simply to state the facts, not wanting to be the one to make the decision.

"True," Harry agreed, taking a sip of his tea. He, too, did not want to be the one to decide who would be taking which position. But, he knew that being truthful and open was important, and so, Harry plucked up his courage and elaborated his previous comment. "Though, we both know that you're the better brewer out of the two of us. I don't know if I will be able to properly concentrate on stirring the cauldron and preparing the ingredients throughout the whole thing," the brunet admitted his uncertainty truthfully to the blond.

"I'm not sure that I will be able to stay focused the whole time either," Draco told Harry. He could fully understand why the brunet felt that way. He could not deny that he really had more than enjoyed their sexual activities in the last twenty-four hours, but, especially after this morning, he was even more unsure if he could brew a potion with all the distractions the sex offered. _Merlin, I __haven't __been able to think about anything else besides Harry and how __good what we did felt__, _the blond thought in the privacy of his mind. _And now, there'll be a bubbling cauldron right next to us which we will need to attend to while we are intimate._

Out loud, Draco only said, "I'm sure that you had a difficult time thinking about anything else besides how good it felt, just like me. And I don't think that it being our third time will make concentrating on skinning an apple and stirring the cauldron correctly any easier."

"Too true. It's a good thing then that the book says that the Lloj potion is not very prone to explode in the brewers' faces, even if they make some mistakes," Harry said with a chuckle.

"Yes, it is," the blond agreed, joining in in Harry's chuckle. "And if we botch it up, we can always start anew and change positions."

"Hmm," Harry agreed, now more relaxed since his nerves had calmed down during their talk and the camomile tea had calmed down his stomach. "So, who will be doing the actual brewing? You?" he asked.

"Why? Are you afraid that you will do a Longbottom and blow this up?" Draco joked. He too had forgotten about his nervousness from before.

"No. I simply have Quidditch practice tomorrow afternoon." Harry remembered. "And since you're already the one with the sore ass," Harry went on, before continuing the sentence in a false saccharine voice, "and, of course, being the better brewer, I thought you would be the most suited for the position," he ended the sentence in his normal voice.

"How considerate of you, Harry. Who would have thought that you could be so generous?" Draco answered sarcastically. "But I will be nice and humour you this time," the blond said without sarcasm. Thinking about it logically, he_ was_ the obvious choice with him being the better brewer, just as Harry said.

Still, he couldn't let Harry start thinking that he could get away from bottoming because of Quidditch practice every time they had a Sexual Potion to brew, so he added, "It's not like you will be able to get out of bottoming because of Quidditch practice with you being the main bottom in our partnership. So, you better get used to flying with a sore ass soon. Though, I've read that over time the soreness won't be as bad."

"Thank you, Draco," Harry answered sincerely, more relieved to not have to do the actual brewing under the circumstances the potion required than having to bottom, as he could care less about his position.

"Let's go and prepare our workstation then," Draco said, getting up from his armchair now that they finally had decided who would be doing what.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

After Draco and Harry finally set up everything they would need in their bedroom, it was time to start brewing their first sexual potion. Both boys were anxious beyond belief about the whole procedure. Their returned nervousness showed in Harry's unusually dishevelled hair as the brunet had moved his hand through it about fifteen times in as many minutes. While Draco's hair was still in perfect order, the blond's lower lip showed signs of abuse as he had been chewing it out of nervousness.

Even if during all their previous sexual encounters everything had gone as smoothly as it could for the two up-to-then virginal and mainly sexually inexperienced teenage boys, they both had a feeling that their initial luck could not last forever and now seemed like the most likely time for the famous Potter luck to run out¯or at least change from getting Harry out of a difficult situation to get him into a rather difficult one.

Though, neither knew if they felt this way because this time they couldn't follow their instincts and wishes but had to follow the instructions given in their Sexual Potions books, or because they would be intimate with a hot and bubbling cauldron right beside them, that had to be tended.

Most likely, the felt their fear was caused by the whole brewing a potion aspect, as it did not only hinder them from truly enjoying their carnal activities but also reminded Harry and Draco of their hated/beloved Potions classroom. This, in turn, reminded the boys of Professor Snape and being in a classroom full of students, who were watching each other and their cauldrons attentively in the hopes to brew the potion correctly¯or at least go through the class without too many lost points and without an exploded cauldron.

So, Harry was very glad that Draco had agreed to be the one to brew the Lloj potion. _Brewing a potion is hard enough as it is, _Harry thought. _I surely don't need Draco distracting me with his bedroom skills in addition to it. Thank god that the brewer can be either the dominant or the bottom in same-sex pairings, _he thought in relief, while Draco was busy reading over the brewing instructions one more time.

Looking over at the blond, Harry was once more reminded about the clothes they had just changed into. While during their normal Potions lessons their uniforms and occasionally their dragon hide gloves provided sufficient protection during the brewing, they could not use normal cloaks any more. So, before the start of the year, they had, according to their Altair shopping list, brought three different sets of special Sexual Potions attire in Timber and Bonker's, a bottoming and a **topping attire***, as well as a third attire set for which they did not have any use right now.

Harry and Draco had laughed when they realised that they had decided on the exact same colour schemas for their clothes, only that Harry's topping clothes were violet and his bottoming robes were green; while Draco had chosen green for his topping attire and violet for his bottoming ones. However, it was not really a coincidence that out of the twenty different colours Timber and Bonker's offered they had bought the same colours—as both Draco and Hermione, who had helped picking out Harry's clothes, had been inspired by the brunet's green eyes and the violet top he wore at the Altair celebration. So, right now, Harry and Draco were both similarly dressed in violet robes.

The bottoming attire the blond had put on consisted of two long arm sleeves which were fastened with metal bonds to the upper arms. The main piece was a mix between a toga and a hospital gown. It resembled a toga in the way that it was like a very loosely worn one-shoulder dress which reached to the wearer's knees. The back was mostly open though, thus the gown resemblance. Or, in short, while it covered the front of the body, protecting it from any hot liquid burning the skin, it left the ass and the back bare while at the same time being lose enough that one could easily gain access to the wearer's nipples and penis from behind.

The top's attire Harry wore was similar to Draco's bottom's attire, only that in addition it also had¯depending on the model¯either a hole or a little flap at the front for the penis to be freely accessible. As neither boy was fond of sticking their cock through a tiny hole, they both had decided to buy the flap variation with strings to open the flap when necessary.

Even if both hated that their asses were exposed, they could not deny that they found the other hot in the robes. While Draco especially liked the nice view of Harry's ass they provided, Harry preferred the front view as it made the blond look like a Greek god, with the clothing just giving him a hint of the fit body underneath the fabric without being too revealing as long as the other boy did not turn his back to Harry. Though, even if Harry did not mind the back view either, the front at least didn't make him flush. So, he found the front view more to his liking.

Closing the book, Draco got up from the bed and walked over to Harry, who was standing next to the middle sized cauldron they had set up.

"Ready?" Harry asked Draco.

The blond answered, "As ready as I can be." As Draco's asshole was already clean from the morning, casting the cleaning charm was not necessary, so they were able to go right to work, without having to recast the charms.

"Okay, then let's get it over with," Harry said, wishing that they had completed it already. Nevertheless, he unfastened his flap and took out his limp penis, clad in a standard cock ring, before he got into position, standing behind the blond, who had put on a special cock ring which could be opened like an adjustable cake ring. This was necessary because later on, Harry would be giving Draco a blow job but needed to have a way to undo the restriction the cock ring provided on the right moment without releasing the blond's prick from his mouth, or the potion would be ruined.

The first step for the brewing of the potion was to add a small cup of water into the pewter cauldron, followed by an equal amount of **diluted sandalwood oil***, taken out from a big porcelain bowl.

While Draco did as instructed, Harry started with his own first step of the sexual nature, namely kissing the blond's neck before he dipped his right hand into the same porcelain bowl of yellowish sandalwood oil to slick up his fingers to lubricate the blond's ass as the oil and water were left to boil.

As Harry was busy fingering the other's boy's ass, occasionally dipping his hand back into the bowl of oil to re-lubricate his fingers, Draco had to perform the very difficult task of skinning an apple so that the paring would be at least six inches long.

While Harry was fully relaxed as he kissed the blond's neck and exposed right shoulder and fingered the other boy's asshole, Draco already had a hard time concentrating on his supposed work. Not only did he have to concentrate so that his string of apple paring would not tear but also he had to make the string at least a quarter of an inch wide because later he had to cut the string into two pieces with each being at least an eighth of an inch wide.

_I am glad that we got these rather big apples from the kitchen, or else I would most likely not be able to get the required six inches,_ Draco thought, already trying very hard to not let Harry's action ruin the peeling of the apple. He actually prided himself on his talent to get rather long apple paring spirals, but the stimulation of his prostate made him want to thrust his hips forward and backward, which would make the knife slip and he would have to start anew, something he did not want to happen as he feared that Harry's distraction and very arousing ministrations would only make peeling the apple harder with time.

_Thank Merlin for the two spare apples we got,_ he thought as Harry's index finger pressed into his prostate a bit too hard for him to further suppress his hip movement. Luckily, by that time, he had already skinned nearly the whole apple, as the knife undesirably cut off the paring string. Laying out the string before the ruler, Draco was relieved to find that the string had already been a bit over six inches long before his body had betrayed him. Not taking any chances, the blond only cut away the spare length and waited for Harry's fingers to leave his ass to dip into the bowl of oil, before he split the string into two parts while his prostate would not be further stimulated.

With this step successfully completed on Draco's part, he took a deep, relaxing breath to calm down again. _Now, I only have to wait for the water-oil mix to boil before I can continue with the next step,_ he thought, glad for the pause.

As the content of the cauldron was still some time away from boiling, Harry had to continue fingering and stretching his Altair partner, whose penis had already started to harden under Harry's ministration. After a minute or so, the brunet saw out of the corners of his eyes the first small bubbles rising up in the cauldron, and he quickly took out his fingers from Draco's ass to scoop up some more of the diluted sandalwood oil to lubricate his own already hard cock before the mixture could start to boil for real.

When the oil-water mix was clearly boiling, Harry quickly thrust into Draco's well prepared ass, like the brewing instructions said. Even with all the stretching and the earlier fuck in the morning, Draco was far away from being ready to be entered this quickly. So, he let out a groan of pain as his asshole was assaulted. Luckily, Harry's left arm had been circling his waist, helping the blond staying upright.

"Sorry," Harry whispered into Draco's right ear, letting his dark hair tingle the blond's naked shoulder.

"It's okay. You can't be blamed for following the instructions," the other boy answered, still in pain but knowing that it had not been Harry's intention to hurt him.

_Who the hell came up with such a stupid instruction? _the blond thought. _The brewer having to be penetrated in one quick thrust as the oil-water mix is boiling, before he has to lower the flame. Shit, the flame,_ Draco suddenly remembered, quickly pointing his wand to the cauldron to lower the temperature to about seventy centigrade, the subduing pain in his ass forgotten because of his panic and the accompanying adrenaline rush.

Now, full of adrenaline, Draco forced himself to concentrate again on the brewing instructions. Luckily for him, the peeling of the apple had been the hardest aspect in regard to ingredient preparation. Taking one of the new eighth of an inch wide peels, he added it to the cauldron.

_Next is the knotgrass, cut into one inch long pieces,_ the blond thought, before he reached for his steel knife. Unfortunately, taking the knife into his hands was also Harry's signal to start thrusting in and out of his ass, as well as to start stroking the blond's cock at a leisure pace.

While at any other time, Draco would have welcomed the sexual attention he received from Harry, he really could have done without it while brewing; however he knew that he would have to get used to this if he wanted to become a Potions master, as brewing Sexual Potions was part of the final exam. So, he tried to suppress his hormones and steadily growing arousal in favour of concentrating on what he was supposed to be doing, namely cutting the rest of the knotgrass and then adding it, six parts at a time to the cauldron before stirring the potion.

However, even if Draco gave his all, he could not contain his wanton moans as Harry's thumb copied his stirring directions¯five times clockwise, one counter-clockwise stir and then again five clockwise stirs¯at the tip of his penis, stimulating the sensitive slit.

As Draco was currently resting his head against Harry's shoulder, the moans having made the blond have to lean his head backwards, he thought, _at least the next time I've to stir the cauldron Harry is only to stroke my cock hard and slow or fast and soft._

The brunet was currently not faring much better, even if he had not to brew a potion, he still had to carefully watch what Draco was doing to adjust his own movements. _Thank god, that I put on a cock ring earlier or I probably wouldn't be able to last until the end, _Harry thought. _It's hard to believe that some minutes ago I had been worried that I would need to touch myself to get aroused, so that I would be hard enough to thrust into Draco. But simply kissing and fingering him had been enough to turn me on._

_Merlin, how can Draco still be so tight after this morning's fuck and all the fingering?_ he wondered, as he thrust once more into the blond's tight hole, changing from the fast and soft stroke to the hard and slow one as the other boy changed his stirring direction.

The next steps luckily did not require for Draco to stir the cauldron, so at least his cock got some peace from the hand job Harry was giving him. To not succumb to his hormones and arousal, the blond swiftly cut the serpentine arnica and the shining leopardbane¯both related to the wolf's bane¯with the practised ease of an aspiring Potions master before he added them to the bubbling cauldron.

Next, he added coltsfoot petals and buckwheat, while Harry all the time was busy thrusting into his ass, kissing his neck and stroking his cock occasionally, even if the later action was not part of the instructions.

After adding the second string of apple peel, it was time for the last few steps. As Draco was concentrating on grinding down pomegranate seeds and lavender in his mortar, Harry suddenly stopped thrusting into him and let out a moan in Parseltongue into the blond's ear.

"Don't stop thrusting, Harry!" Draco chided, knowing that it was important that Harry did not stop his movement, even if the other boy was near to orgasming. Hell, if not for that damn cock ring he himself would have come just now because of hearing Potter moaning in Parseltongue.

What the blond did not know though, was that Harry was currently experiencing his first dry orgasm, as the cock ring the brunet wore hindered him from ejaculating into Draco's ass. In his hormone induced state, Harry only heard Draco saying "Thrusting, Harry!" but it was enough for him to force himself to start thrusting in and out of the blond's ass once more, even if his pace was slower than before because he still had to come back from his high.

_I can't believe that I am still hard, _Harry thought as he got his breath back. _The cock ring really is a life saver. Without it, we would have been forced to start all over again, only because I could not restrain myself from coming _a_nd we're as good as done with the brewing, _he thought, relieved.

Finally, it was time to add the last ingredients. Carefully Draco took a spoonful of the crushed lavender/pomegranate seed mix and let it dissolve in the thick green potion, before he repeated the step three more times.

After Draco stirred the potion two times clockwise and four times counter-clockwise¯both actions accompanied by the matching strokes to his cock¯the now burgundy potion was as good as finished. It just needed to cool down, which was actually the trickiest part of the brewing because of the timing of the blow job, before a pinch of cinnamon would be added to the cold potion.

If everything was done correctly during the cooling down phase then the colour of the potion would change to cerise, the colour of a baked cherry before it would turn black when the cinnamon was added. Though, if the brewer came too fast, the potion would turn to a dark red or become magenta if the brewer orgasmed too late. Either way, after adding cinnamon the potion would still have a red touch, which would make the potion less effective or even useless, depending on how red the final product would be.

"Is it time?" Harry asked breathless.

"Yes, it is," Draco answered, his cock aching for release.

Harry slowly withdrew his cock from the blond's ass, while Draco slowly lowered the flame under the cauldron. They had to take care that the flame would extinguish at the moment as Harry's prick would leave the blond's ass. With the brunet's slow pace, Draco had enough time to adjust the flame, so they mastered this step with no problems.

Quickly, Draco turned around the hourglass to measure the three and a half minutes they had before the cinnamon needed to be added. Harry in turn quickly ducked and crawled under the blond's legs to begin his task of giving Draco a blow job.

_Urgh, it tastes sweet and pungent and the aftertaste is bitter,_ Harry thought as he sucked on the tip of the other boy's cock, which was still covered in the sandalwood oil. Nevertheless, Harry did not allow it to distract him from his task of giving head. _We're as good as finished with this potion. I won't let anything ruin all our effort,_ he motivated himself. _Besides, if I lick it all away, there soon won't be anything of the oil left._

The reason why Professor Essentjelly had asked Professor Greige to hold a lesson on blow jobs was not that he thought his students didn't know how to give head, but the limited time his students had to make the other orgasm was something he had been worried about. Three and a half minutes sometimes wasn't enough to reach that point, even if the brewer was most likely already more than aroused by that point.

Draco was already at the verge of coming undone, as his little moans indicated. And now to have Harry's hot and wet mouth around his rock-hard cock while he didn't need to concentrate on brewing a potion any longer was too much for the blond's self-control. Without thought, he thrust his hips forward, making Harry nearly gag as his cock entered the brunet far deeper than he could take. As Draco moved to take out his cock from Harry's mouth so that the other boy would not choke, the brunet had the sense of mind to quickly lay his hands on the blond's ass-cheeks to make sure that the tip of Draco's penis would stay in his mouth as the instruction requested. He would not allow this to ruin all of their efforts.

With only the tip of the blond's cock in his mouth, Harry could quickly breathe easily again and tried his best to bring the other boy close to orgasm.

Far too soon to Harry's liking Draco groaned out, "Time's nearly up."

Harry prepared himself for the blond's impending release and placed his hand into position to open the cock ring at Draco's moaned "Now!", and swallowed most of the stream of semen which came out of the other's cock, while holding the blond upright with his hands still on Draco's ass.

As Draco felt the strongest orgasm of his life overtake him, he quickly released the powdered cinnamon in his right hand into the cauldron.

After Draco finished ejaculating, Harry let Draco's bottoming attire fall back into place, so that he was not looking under the blond's robes any longer like a peeping Tom, before he helped his Altair partner to sit down on the floor.

Coming face to face with the brunet, the blond thought, _If I had not come moments ago I surely would already be half hard right now, with how hot Harry looks with some of my cum smeared over his face and his cock pointing towards his stomach from the nest of unruly black pubic hair._

Still a bit out of breath, he asked, "Can I help you with your problem?" pointedly looking at Harry's erect cock.

"I don't think it will be necessary," Harry said as he slowly took off the cock ring. True to his words, as soon as the cock ring was not preventing him from coming anymore, Harry came hard all over his topping robes, some drops even landing on Draco's violet bottoming attire.

The blond was very glad that he was sitting with his knees drawn to his chest because when he saw Harry come with his sperm still on the brunet's face he got hard again. _Thank Salazar that I'm not wearing topping robes, or Harry surely would notice my predicament,_ he thought.

"Brewing the potion was as hard as I thought it would be," Harry told the blond, unaware of the other boy's newly awakened arousal. "And I was not even doing the actual brewing."

"Yeah, I'm glad that it's over," Draco agreed. "In the beginning, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to peel the apple correctly because you were over stimulating my prostate," he truthfully told Harry. "Maybe, next time, you can be a bit more careful about avoiding that spot." he advised.

"I'll try," the brunet answered, blushing and looking down at the floor in shame that he hadn't thought to do that on his own.

"By the way, why did you suddenly stop thrusting for a moment during the end?" the blond asked out of curiosity.

"Ehm," Harry began turning an even bright red, "I believe that I experienced something called a dry orgasm. Without this little helpful cock ring," Harry said, holding up said item with his right hand, "I would most likely have come at that moment, ruining the potion."

"Thank Merlin that you were wearing it then," the blond answered.

"Yes. And to think that Professor Essentjelly told us that this potion is easy to brew," Harry said.

"We can always hope that it will become easier with practice," the blond answered.

Before both boys could get lost in their discussion about how hard it had been on them to do as their Sexual Potions book instructed, Draco decided to stop it lest he was forced to admit to Harry about how much Parseltongue turned him on.

"How about we shower and change into our normal clothes?" Draco suggested, getting up from their bedroom floor.

"Sounds good," Harry agreed and took the hand Draco offered to help him up.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"So, Draco, what should we do with the five vials of the Lloj Potion?" Harry asked the blond, after they had showered, changed and finally bottled up their first Sexual Potion, being proud of themselves as the potion was the dark black colour it should be.

"Besides the one we need for Professor Essentjelly, I would like to use one right now to test if it works properly. For the rest of them..." Draco paused in his speech to think about it before he continued with a mischievous smirk, "How about we use them on Blaise and Hermione? With all the Head Boy cracks he's made this week, it would be nice to know if _dear_ Blaise had any sexual kinks. It's not like it could backfire on us, as we don't have any kinks the potion could show, so we would be safe from any revenge coming from them trying to copy us."

"Great idea. I'm game," Harry quickly agreed. "Though, we should get their blood at the same time or otherwise they could warn each other about what we're up to." Even if he normally respected the privacy of others, he could not deny that he was curious to know what Typos Thesis Hermione was. He already had a suspicion and most likely had been proven correct in the last Sexual Potion class, but, with the secretive spells in place he could not remember any Typos Thesis besides Draco's and his own. Besides, he wasn't the silent partner of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes for nothing.

"You know what, why don't we use the last vial on Ron?" Harry asked, after a moment of staring at the remaining vial. "It would serve him right after his outburst last Monday." Even if Harry had already kind of forgiven his friend after the redhead had apologised to him, the brunet was in a pranking mood.

_And who knows, maybe Ron will see what he is missing? It is not every day that you're able to find out other people's kinks that easily. I'm sure that Ron would have used it before on Draco to blackmail him. Or maybe tried to get Krum's sexual kinks so that he could prove to Hermione that she could not trust the Bulgarian,_ Harry thought, amused.

"Yes, that would serve Weasley right," Draco agreed to Harry's suggestion, before he tested their potion with his own blood.

"Works perfect," the blond said as the red and dark green spots appeared in the black potion. "Now, we only have to figure out how to get their blood."

"I'm sure that I will be able to get some of Ron's tomorrow during Quidditch practice. If we already have taken Blaise's and Hermione's blood by then, Hermione will surely have no problems to send a Bludger after him to get some blood."

"Would our Head Girl really do such a thing?" Draco asked, bewildered.

"Oh, yes, she would. She manipulated last year's Quidditch try-outs after all," Harry answered, fondly remembering how Hermione had cast the Confundus Charm on Cormac McLaggen.

"Spill," Draco demanded and so Harry told him the story after the blond promised to not tell a soul about it.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**topping attire:** I uploaded a sketch of it on my deviantart account (same user name) or use the link on my profile.

**diluted sandalwood oil:** "Sandalwood essential oil was popular in medicine up to 1920-1930, mostly as a urogenital (internal) and skin (external) antiseptic. Its main component, beta-santalol (~90%), has antimicrobial properties. Because of its strength, sandalwood oil should never be applied to the skin without being diluted in a carrier oil." [Wikipedia] And I only found this out after I decided to use sandalwood oil in this story. Lucky me to find something which was used as an urogenital antiseptic.

**Note: **The herbs were chosen randomly, so no explanation for them is included here, like the sandalwood.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Your turn: **What do you want Ron's Typos Thesis to be? Should he have any embarrassing kinks? Tell me in a review!

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**AN: **Please tell me what you think about their first Sexual Potion. Your reviews would be a much appreciated belated Christmas present. :)

**Next:** Most likely their second Basic and Ritual Magic classes. So, it will be time for their first test in Basic. ;)


	22. Chapter 21 Pranking with the Lloj Potion

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written stuff**___, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **None. Except if your name is Harry Potter then you'd better run and hide now. ;)

**Beta: **Makoto Sagara

**AN: **Thank you for all the new reviews, favourites and alerts. They really made me happy.

I'd planned for this chapter to be much longer but before you had to wait another three weeks before I finish writing one long chapter, I decided to split it up. The announced Basic test will be in the next chapter. For now enjoy a bit of pranking.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 21 – Pranking with the Lloj Potion-~-~-**

**Monday, 8th September, 1997**

"How did it go?" Draco asked his partner in crime when Harry entered the living room of Room Zero Monday evening.

"Well enough. I'm still alive, aren't I?" the brunet answered, rubbing his hurting left cheek―a gift from Hermione, which didn't go unnoticed by the blond―before letting himself fall down in his armchair. He was utterly exhausted after the afternoon's Quidditch practice and after doing his part in getting both Hermione's and Blaise's blood for the Lloj potion.

"And with you?" Harry asked, interested to know how Draco's own little stunt had gone.

"Let's just say that it was a good thing that I was the one to ambush Blaise here," the blond stated. "If he'd been able to enter our rooms, I most likely wouldn't've had enough time to inspect his potion. I didn't think that Blaise had such good reflexes," he told Harry, remembering how difficult it had been for him to succeed with his part.

_Thank Merlin that the door is resistant to spells, or Blaise surely would have blown it off of its hinges to get a good shot at me,_ Draco thought, remembering how Blaise had been yelling at him through the closed door. _Still, we were successful in the end._

The night before, the two boys had spent the better part of an hour coming up with a plan on how to get Hermione's and Blaise's blood to find out their Typos Thesis. In the end, they had decided that using the fact that others needed to be invited to enter their Altair room would be a good advantage to have. If the situation became ugly, they could simply close the door in their friends' faces and hide behind the wards.

Though, Draco had argued that it would be a bit too fishy for them to lure both Hermione and Blaise to their door at the same time, as their friends had already been invited to Room Zero days ago, and with them having to brew the Lloj potion surely one of them would get suspicious, but they couldn't risk one of them warning the other, so they had to get their blood simultaneously. So, they'd agreed that one of them would need to lure his friend to an unused classroom instead.

This was actually the reason why they needed so long to come up with a plan as they spent nearly twenty minutes arguing about who of them would be utilising the help of Room Zero, as neither boy wanted to face their friend's fury unprotected. But, in the end, Draco―the Slytherin he was―had succeeded in guilt-tripping Harry into being to one to get Hermione's blood in an unused classroom. Not only had the blond argued that Harry was the Gryffindor and thus the expected braver one out of them, but also that he had mercifully agreed to bottom during the brewing of the Lloj potion. So, the least Harry could do was to yield the protection of the Altair wards to Draco.

When Hermione had announced at dinner that she wanted to get her things from the tower before going to the library for a study session, Harry saw his chance to get her blood. Giving his blond partner in crime a signal to let him know that he would start with his part, Harry left the Great Hall before Hermione to prepare himself.

And that was how Harry ended up abducting Hermione on her trip to the library after dinner, while Draco told Blaise that he wanted to give him something but had forgotten it in his room and asked the dark-skinned Slytherin to please accompany him to the door of Room Zero.

**Flashback, half an hour before Harry entered Room Zero**

After putting on his invisibility cloak, Harry had grabbed one of their Lloj potion vials and a knife and walked towards the fourth floor and waited for his friend to walk by. When he spotted Hermione walking towards him not ten minutes later, he dragged his friend into the abandoned classroom, taking care to stay hidden under the cloak.

"Harry?" the brunette woman asked into the seemingly empty room.

"Yeah, it's me," the brunet answered, walking towards his bushy-haired friend. The vial with the Lloj potion had been in his left hand when he had been waiting outside for Hermione. And now that he didn't need his right hand any longer to take a hold of his friend's arm, he gingerly took out his knife from its previous place at his buckle. Then, he held the small but sharp knife between his thumb and index finger of his right hand, while he secured the vial between the middle and ring finger of the same hand. At the same time, he was being careful that neither the knife nor the potion vial left their safe hiding place under his invisibility cloak.

"I'm under my cloak," he continued, trying to distract the girl while he brought the knife into position. Grabbing Hermione's right hand with his free left hand, so that she would be unable to hex him with her wand, he brought it under the cloak and out of her view before he swiftly cut the underside of the girl's hand, collecting the necessary three drops of blood in the vial.

"Ouch," Hermione screamed when the knife cut her skin. "What are you doing, Harry?" she asked, bewildered by her friend's action. When Harry didn't answer, she grabbed with her left hand for the invisibility cloak as Harry was still holding firmly onto her right hand, not letting it go even as she was trying to get her hand out of his grip.

When she saw a vial containing a red and dark blue striped potion which sported some neon green dots appear from under the cloak, she immediately recognised it as her result of the Lloj potion. After she came out of her initial shock a few moments later, she started an angry rant.

"Harry James Potter, what in the world do you think you're doing!? How could you go behind my back to find out my Typos Thesis?" Here, she again tried to get her right hand free, so that she could slap him, just like she had done to Draco in third year.

When she wasn't successful, she, enraged, brought up her left hand to slap the vial of Lloj potion out of Harry's hand in an attempt to stop her friend from studying all the colours her potion showed. Because the brunet had to hold both the vial and the knife with his right hand, the small glass flask easily fell out of his hand, splattering the stone ground of the classroom with a black puddle. Luckily, Draco had had the foresight to cast an unbreakable charm on the vials, so at least there weren't any glass splinters lying around.

But, even if the potion was now ruined and didn't show her result anymore, her initial hesitation when she saw what Harry had done had given Harry enough time to find out what her specific Typos Thesis was.

"I'm sorry, but I was just really curious if my guess that you're a dominant is correct," Harry told Hermione to try and appease his now very angry friend. He actually had thought about a good possible excuse during today's boring DADA class. And curiosity was the best he had come up with during the forty-five minutes of the lesson.

"CURIOUS?" she howled, speaking in one-word sentences as the given excuse was not appealing to her sense of rightness and thus she was still livid. "There is a reason why those privacy and memory spells Altair Black cast are in place. Don't you have any respect for other people's privacy? I don't open your mail, do I? So, you should honour the Altair secret as much as the privacy of correspondence. If I wanted you to know my Typos Thesis, I would have told you," she scolded her friend, still mad.

As Harry had finally let her hand go, she took a step to the left, turning her body away from Harry and clenching her right hand into a fist, trying to calm down by walking in a circle in front of the young man.

"Come on, Hermione. I really am sorry. But it was getting on my nerves to not be able to remember if my guess of you being a dominant had been proven wrong during our last Sexual Potions class or not. We both know that as soon as I enter the classroom I will be able to remember your Typos Thesis. But the whole memory charms were starting to get annoying," Harry pleaded, hoping that Hermione had calmed down enough to listen.

_Couldn't he have simply asked me if I'm a dominant or not? _Hermione thought, angry at her friend's action._ If he only wanted to know my role, I would have told him in exchange for his. But did he have to find out my whole Typos Thesis!_ she thought angrily. While she didn't have a problem with Harry knowing her position and role, she really would have preferred if no-one besides Blaise―who shared her kink and thus, couldn't blackmail her with it―found out her bondage kink. _Such things are private after all,_ she thought. _What would he think if I tried to find out his little embarrassing kinks?_

"If you want to you can find out my Typos Thesis too," he quickly added, as his previous plea seemingly hadn't done anything to calm her down. _Maybe I shouldn't have done it, _Harry second guessed his decision. _Though, it sounded like a great idea last night..._

"Oh, you can be sure that I will, Harry," she said in a promising voice. _Just you wait, Harry, until I know your kinks. Maybe you're into masochism?_

"How about we find out Ron's Typos Thesis too?" he suggested. He already had suspected that saying sorry would not be enough for Hermione, but he was sure that averting her attention from himself to Ron would be able to calm her down and forgive him for his stunt―at least after she had found out his Typos Thesis.

"If we are lucky, Ron's Typos Thesis will turn out to be not compatible with yours. This way we may be able to help him realise that you aren't meant to be together as he thinks," he continued, trying to make the idea irresistible for her.

This suggestion seemed to appease her as she, just like Harry, had forgiven their red-haired friend, but couldn't forget his explosion during the first day back at school and all his rants before that. Besides, Neville had told her in private that Ron still wanted her back. _So, Harry does have a point,_ she thought. _Though, I still wouldn't be any better than Harry. Disrespecting Ron's privacy__―a__lthough, he_ _hadn't respected our privacy either when he attempted to prohibit us from talking Altair electives,_ she argued with herself. _But as I already promised retribution for Harry, what does it matter if I find out Ron's Typos Thesis too?_

Decision made, she told Harry, "Okay, we'll do it. But it's only an exception to the rule because of dire circumstances as he had disrespected our privacy too when he forbid us to take Altair electives," she defended her decision, which went against all she said in her previous rant.

"Great," he happily answered, glad to see a mischievous spark in her eyes instead of the angry glint from before. "I've already reserved one vial for him. So, the only thing we need to do is to get his blood," he told her, excited.

"How about you come and watch our next Quidditch practice and send a Bludger after him to draw some blood?" Harry suggested the plan he had the day before. "I'm sure he wouldn't notice that anything is amiss."

"You know that we will need fresh and clean blood. Scrapping it off of a Bludger won't reveal anything. But, I'll come up with something. Don't worry," she told him, mentally adding, _and I will also figure something to get your blood_.

The only question was how she could use the Bludger to her advantage as she knew that if some dirt which would be on the Quidditch ball got into the Lloj potion, it would turn as black and useless as the one currently sprayed on the ground before he feet, which reminded her that she still hadn't given Harry the slap he deserved for his act. _I can't let him think that he got away with trying to distract me with Ron,_ she thought. So, before she got distracted again, she quickly lifted her right hand and slapped Harry's left cheek.

"Ouch," Harry groaned out; the slap had taken him by surprise.

"You deserved it," was all she said, before she took out her wand to get rid of the ruined Lloj potion at her feet.

"Are we good now?" Harry gingerly asked, rubbing his throbbing left cheek.

"Yeah, yeah," Hermione answered, dismissively. She was already busy plotting. "I'll tell you if I come up with something for Ron. Now though, I really have to go to the library before it closes at eight. You've already taken up enough time with your stunt." And with that, she left the room, leaving Harry behind to pick up his invisibility cloak and the glass vial before he too left the classroom to go join Draco in Room Zero.

**End Flashback**

"Though, it is a good thing that you suggested that we put an unbreakable spell on the vials, otherwise mine surely would have broken," Harry told Draco, remembering Hermione's reaction to seeing him holding the vial with the result of her Lloj potion.

"So," Draco asked, "is our Head Girl a dominant just as we thought she would be?"

"Yes, she is. A complete dominant even," Harry answered. "Though, that isn't all."

"Let me guess," the blond interrupted him, "she has a kink for bondage just like dear Blaise."

"Yup," Harry agreed, popping the P.

"Blaise, by the way, is like you only a mainly submissive. So, they're bound to clash sometime in the future over who will take on the dominant role. I'm sure it will be fun to see," the blond told his Altair partner.

"Oh, yeah," Harry agreed, laughing about the image. When he thought back at how easy it was to persuade Hermione to go back on her own words to find out Ron's Typos Thesis, Harry laughed even more, now that he wasn't threatened with getting slapped again.

"So, do you think that they will try to get our blood in the near future?" Harry asked Draco when he finally stopped laughing.

"You can bet on it. Though, it won't be right away, because while Blaise was cursing me, he inadvertently gave away that they don't have any spare vials left because Hermione insisted that they'd better be safe and thoroughly test their sample before submitting a vial of it. So, they will have to brew a new batch if they want to find out our Typos Thesis. Not that Blaise seemed to be against the idea."

"And Hermione will surely not have anything against another opportunity to brew the potion. Extra practice and all that," Harry added.

"Hmm," the blond hummed in agreement. "The only question left is if we want to make it easy for them to get our blood or not?"

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Next:** The Altair students will be graded on their lubrication and cleaning charm casting skills by the Professors Greige.

**AN2:** You have still time to suggest some kinks for Ron. So far, my favourites are him liking to be spanked and handcuffed to the bed and having a submissive tendency.

I update a little chart for the Lloj potion, where all the so far used colours and meanings are listed. The link is on my profile page.


	23. Chapter 22 Grading in Basic Ts magic

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written stuff**___, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes, mild exhibitionism/voyeurism during their first Basic Trance-sexual magic test, if you're uncomfortable with this simply skip to the next break line

**Beta: **Makoto Sagara

**AN: **Thank you for all the new reviews, favourites and alerts. They really made me very happy.

And now enjoy reading about how an Altair test works.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 22 – Grading in Basic Trance-sexual Magic-~-~-**

**Tuesday, 9th September, 1997**

"Good morning, class," Professor Angus Greige greeted his students at the start of their third Basic Trance-sexual Magic lesson. "As you already know, today you'll be tested on your skill on how to cast the anal cleaning and lubrication charms. For this, we'll use a set of rooms next door. They have the same strong memory charms as the testing room on the seventh floor, only that they're faster to reach.

"While two Altair pairs are being tested, the rest of you can begin your homework assignment for Thursday, which is to read chapters three and four in your books on how to properly prepare your partner," he continued speaking, before any of his students could think too much about the previous mentioned strong memory charms on the testing rooms. "I trust that neither I nor Professor Colleen need to supervise the classroom, do we?" he asked the class at large, not expecting an answer as seventh years should be able to behave during a self-study lesson.

Taking the class' silence as an assurance, he went on. "If there aren't any questions, let's start. Misses Brown and Patil," he called out to the first pair, "if you would please accompany Professor Colleen while Miss Brocklehurst and Mister Thomas will accompany me."

The aforementioned students obediently got up and followed their professors out of the classroom. As soon as the door closed, the remaining students began talking.

"Ah, the advantage of coming last in the alphabet," Blaise said, having like anyone else recognised that the pairings were tested in alphabetical order. "It's always nice if one can read without interruptions."

"Yes, it is," Hermione agreed wishfully. "But, as my last name starts with a 'G', we won't be the lucky ones who go in last."

"But Hermione, you could always marry me right now and take my name," Blaise joked even grabbing her hand like he was moments away from putting a ring on her finger.

Hermione, Harry and Draco, as well as some of their other classmates who were sitting nearby were laughing at his antics.

"Sorry, Blaise, but I'll have to say no," Hermione answered her partner's not very serious proposal. "You would have to meet my parents first and get my father's blessing," she teased.

"Oh, you wound me, Hermione," he said, his right hand lying over his 'broken' heart. "I'll have to drown my sorrow in our reading assignment." And this was the cue for him and the students who had been listening to his and Hermione's banter to take up their own books and start reading like they were supposed to do.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"Miss Granger and Mister Zabini," Professor Colleen Greige called a while later, collecting the two for their test.

"Good luck!" Harry wished the exiting pair.

"Thanks, Harry," Hermione called back, looking a bit nervous—which was understandable as it was her first practical test in any of her Altair electives.

"Come on, Head Girl," Blaise said to Hermione while he slung one of his arms around her shoulders. "Let's at least show off your superb bedroom skills if you don't want to marry me," Blaise told her to calm her down on their way towards their test room, but it only resulted in Hermione's face turning red and Blaise getting a slap on the back of his head.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Harry asked the blond sitting beside him. "They didn't try to get your blood during Runes, did they?"

Harry had been anxious that Hermione and Blaise would try to corner Draco during either Runes or Arithmancy as the blond took those classes together with the other two. Without Harry there, they could easily outnumber him. It would be too easy for one of them to hold Draco down while the other took his blood, even if it wouldn't be sneaky enough coming from those two.

"No, they didn't try anything," he answered. Draco secretly agreed with Harry that Runes and Arithmancy would be perfect opportunities for them to get his blood. But, as he told Harry the day before, he didn't think that they would do so right away. Most likely, they would attack him in a month's time and in a way where he wouldn't notice a thing.

"Are you sure that you don't want me to come to Saturday's Quidditch practice?" Draco asked.

"No, it's alright. It's not like you can do anything against Hermione throwing the Bludger at me after she gets Ron with it without Ron noticing what we're up to," Harry answered. They both guessed that that would be Hermione's plan of action, as it was the most logical.

"If you say so."

"Hmm," Harry answered before both boys continued reading, lest Blaise and Hermione came back and overheard their conversation.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

While reading their assigned chapters, both Harry and Draco had become suspicious as to why they would be tested in a special room. It got even worse once they finished reading and had nothing else to distract them from their rising nervousness.

_I mean, _Harry thought to himself after he remembered the first part of Professor Greige's speech, _if they only wanted to test us without the distraction of the other students, Professor Greige wouldn't have mentioned the strong memory charms on the testing rooms. If I remember his opening speech correctly, such rooms are only used if the students have to perform intimate practical tests,_ Harry worried. He did _so_ not like exhibitionism.

Draco wasn't faring any better than his brunet Altair partner._ Now __that I'm__ thinking about it, the use of the private room must mean that we have to expose ourselves to our professor, _Draco thought with a shudder. _Otherwise, he wouldn't have emphasised that they have the same strong memory charm on them as the special Altair room on the seventh floor. _Looking over at Harry, he saw that the brunet had also finished reading and seemed to be nervous about their test too.

_I hope that Harry won't mind it too much, considering how shy he was at the beginning and still is sometimes, _Draco hoped.

"Misters Malfoy and Potter," Professor Angus Greige called from the open door eighteen minutes before the class was due to end, bringing Harry and Draco out of their thoughts before they could work themselves up any more.

_Here we go,_ Draco thought getting up from his chair, having finished reading the assigned chapters about five minutes ago.

"Good luck," Hermione repeated Harry's earlier words of encouragement.

"Have fun, you two," were Blaise parting words, leaving both to wonder what his smirk and wink meant.Knowing Blaise, Draco didn't think that it meant anything good.

_Great,_ the blond thought while leaving the classroom, getting more nervous with every step he took. _Now, I definitely know that neither Harry nor I will like the test._

Crossing the hallway to the testing room with the memory charms, both of them got more nervous with every step they took.

Opening the dark wooden door for them, Professor Greige walked into the rather bare room. Besides the standard four-poster bed which could be found in any of the school's dorm rooms, the only other pieces of furniture were a cupboard and a table with four chairs, everything made out of spruce.

After Harry closed the door behind them, Professor Greige began to explain their task. "As you already know, you're here to get graded on your anal cleaning and lubrication charms. As I don't think you're able to cast the charms wandlessly yet, your options are the following: Either cast the spells on your partner or cast them on me."

Both Harry and Draco made displeased faces, even if they already had guessed something like this would happen. However uncomfortable they were with the situation, both boys were more disturbed by the image of casting the spells on their professor than on each other while being watched by said professor.

"If you find that you're really uncomfortable with casting the spells on either me or your partner, there is also the option that you perform the spells on the tube you used for practice."

Hearing those words, Harry got a hopeful look on his face. _Maybe I won't have to show my naked ass in front of him, or look at his?_ he thought, not even wanting to start imagining how Professor Greige's ass would look like.

"But, as the human anus has many folds, you'll need to cast the charms on a real anus to be able to get an Outstanding. If you chose to use the tube, you won't receive anything better than an Acceptable as the tube doesn't have any folds which would be stretched open when a penis or other object is inserted."

_The use of the practise tube sounded too good to be true, _Draco thought, having expected a drawback or another for the use of the tube. _If the tube was a real option, then we wouldn't be here,_ he argued in his head.

Grabbing a deep blue plug the size of an erect penis out of a box that was full of them, Professor Greige held it up for the two boys to see and went on. "This is a special plug. Once it comes into contact with the lube from the anal lubrication charm, its colour will change to a deep red. This special characteristic is what we'll use for your grading.

"First, I'll cast the lubrication charm. Then, your task will be to clean the anus with the cleaning charm. Afterwards, the plug will be inserted and then taken out again. If the plug is still blue, you'll have cast the spell successfully.

"To test your lubrication charm skills, the plug will be inserted once more and after you cast the lubrication charm, I'll cast the cleaning charm and take the plug out again. Only if the whole plug is red, will you receive an Outstanding."

Finished with his explanation on how the grading process would work, he joyfully asked, "So, which of you wants to begin?"

Harry and Draco exchanged nervous glances, neither of them wanting to be first. Even less, they wanted to be the one on whom the spells would be cast. Both of them wished to stay dressed, thank you very much. _But it doesn't seem like we have a choice in the matter, _they thought in unison.

_Every time, they react the same way,_ Angus Greige thought, amused. Or at least it felt like it being the same everytime to him, as he was unable to remember how the other pairs had reacted. _And here I thought that the occupants of Room Zero wouldn't be as hesitant as the others._

"Do you want me to cast the spells first?" Draco asked Harry in a whisper. The blond was unsure if Harry would be more at ease if he would cast the spells first or if he would be the first to expose himself. So, he wasn't too sure as to which option would help the brunet the most.

Following his gut feeling, Harry decided to be the one to cast the spells. "I'll go first, if you don't mind," he said.

"It's okay with me," Draco answered, not caring either way as long as it would help relax Harry. Draco knew that Harry would have to get naked at one point anyway. Besides, worrying about making his partner comfortable was a good distraction from his own nervousness.

"I gather you would prefer to cast the charms on your partner instead of myself?" Professor Greige asked Harry, who nodded in affirmation.

"Then, Mister Malfoy, if you don't mind helping your partner out, please undress so that your partner can gain access to your anus and then lie down on the bed."

Without a word—he was too nervous to not stutter—Draco took off his school robes to show that he didn't have a problem with Harry casting the spells on him. After throwing the cloak over one of the nearby spruce chairs, Draco hesitated for a moment before he also removed his trousers. When only his boxer briefs were left, he motivated himself with his newly formed mantra. _Don't worry, as soon as you're out of here, neither you nor your professor will be able to remember this. Besides, you're doing it for Harry too. _Though, it didn't help at all in fighting of the deep red blush sprouting on his face.

Taking a quick glance at Harry, who was looking even more red and embarrassed than the stripping blond, Draco quickly pushed down his blue and white striped boxer briefs while thinking, _You're doing it for Harry._ Seeing how Harry was faring even worse than him, even if the brunet wasn't the one stripping in front of an audience, also gave Draco a new boost of courage. Though, this didn't stop him from quickly walking over to the bed to lie with his face down on the soft purple duvet to at least hide his cock from view, burrowing his red face in his arms.

Harry had been watching the whole show with awe. Even if he could clearly see that Draco was more than embarrassed—the deep red cheeks on the otherwise pale skin were a big give away—his blond partner hadn't hesitatde too much to get naked.

"Ready?" Professor Greige asked, before he wandlessly and wordlessly—to not give away the correct wand movement and incantation—cast the lubrication charm on an unsuspecting Draco, who hadn't noticed the hand movement because his face was still buried in his arms and let out a short shriek due to the slightly cold lube.

"Mister Potter, if you would please cast the cleaning charm," Professor Greige asked him.

Said brunet needed a moment to come out of his stupor. He still felt queasy about the whole voyeuristic aspect of the test. While he walked over towards the bed Draco was lying on, Harry tried to calm down his nerves and centre himself again. When he reached the bed, he took a deep, and hopefully calming, breath before he took out his wand.

"_Colluo culus_," he called out, pointing his wand in the direction of Draco's ass to cast the cleaning charm.

With the first task done, Professor Greige handed over the deep blue plug to Harry, so that the brunet could insert it into his partner's ass.

While Harry accepted the plug, he hesitated when it came to actually inserting it into Draco. Harry knew from his own one-time experience with a plug that inserting it could hurt a bit. And considering that Draco's asshole wasn't lubricated at all, it certainly would hurt the blond a lot.

Seeing Potter's hesitation, Professor Greige asked, "Should I insert it for you, Mister Potter?"

"No," Harry quickly barked out without thinking. Surprisingly, the thought that his professor would stuff a plug up Draco's ass troubled him even more than him getting a plug inserted by the same teacher. But as Harry didn't want to seem rude, he tried to explain his previous harsh exclamation.

"I'm just worried about Draco, sir. With the plug being as big as a penis and him not being properly stretched and lubricated, inserting the plug will surely hurt him," Harry voiced his concerns.

While Draco had felt a warm tingle in his stomach when he heard Harry quickly shouting out the "No" to Professors Greige's question, and felt even more cared and loved when Harry explained his reasonings, he still wanted to get the whole test done as soon as possible so that he could get dressed again. So, in an attempt to get Harry going, he lifted his head from his crossed arms and said, "Don't worry, Potter. I'm not made out of glass." He used the brunet's last name on purpose to goad him.

"I know, _Draco_," Harry answered, emphasizing the blond's first name on purpose. "But, I still don't want to unnecessarily hurt you."

"Thanks. I would prefer it too if some lube could be there, but there isn't another option if we want to get a good grade, is there?" Draco asked in a resigned voice.

Though, before Harry could answer, Professor Greige spoke up making his presence once again known to the boys—who apparently had totally forgotten about him standing near them. "I'm glad to see that the two of you are worried about proper preparation," he said. And with a big smile, he brought forth his wand and directed it towards Malfoy's asshole before he called out, "_**Ducatus sine praecipitatio**_*****."

Seeing Misters Malfoy and Potter's stunned faces, he explained his action. "The special lubrication charm I've just cast doesn't react with the plug, so you're safe to push it in now without having to worry that this lubrication would ruin your grade or to hurt Mister Malfoy because of a lack of lube," he informed them.

Getting his bearings back, Harry nodded and slowly started to push in the plug after Draco gave him a signal that it was okay to do so.

After the plug was fully inserted, Professor Greige waited a moment until he asked harry to take the plug back out again and hand it over to him for inspection.

While the lube and Harry going slowly had certainly helped to lessen the pain, the whole insertion and extraction of the plug still stung as Draco hadn't been stretched beforehand and the last time he had been fucked was two days ago. So, the blond was glad when the plug was taken out again. However, in an effort to not unsettle Harry further, he had tried his best to not let his discomfort show or let out a groan of pain.

Inspecting the plug, Professor Greige noticed that except for one very small red line near the tip of the plug, the sextoy still had a deep blue colour. "Very good, Mister Potter," he praised. "Please insert it once more, so that I can grade your lubrication charm," he instructed the brunet boy, handling the same plug back to Harry, as it could be used for the next test too, unlike some others who had had more red spots and had needed to be exchanged with a new one.

With a sigh, Draco prepared himself once more for the big blue cock imitation to be thrust into his asshole. Luckily for him, some of the lube Professor Greige had provided was still inside his anus and on the plug.

When the plug was inserted as far as it would go, Professor Greige cast the cleaning charm without Harry noticing, before the brunet could grab his wand in his right hand to perform his lubrication charm.

"_Praeunctus culus_," Harry spoke the incantation, covering the inside of the blond's ass with his raspberry flavoured lube.

Draco was surprised that, opposed to the two lubrication charms Professor Greige had cast, Harry's own lube didn't feel cold at all. If this hadn't been only the second time that the brunet had cast the lubrication charm on him, Draco would have said it was because he was already familiar with Harry's magic and lube.

After Professor Angus Greige gave the plug some time to properly react with the lube, he cast the anal cleaning charm to ensure that when the plug was taken out the result wouldn't be tampered with. It wouldn't do any good if one of his students hadn't been able to lube the tip but would lubricate it on the way out of the asshole with some of the lube from the entrance.

Draco was glad when his professor once again cast the special lubrication charm, even if he disliked the feeling of it, before he asked Harry to take the plug out of his ass.

Absently Professor Greige said, "You can get dressed again now, Mister Malfoy."

Draco was more than happy to hear that he could finally cover himself up again, but, before hecould leave the bed, he noticed that part of his anus was still covered with the lube from the _Ducatus sine praecipitatio_ charm. Resigned, he lied back down on the bed and asked, "Harry? Could you please cast the cleaning charm once more? My ass is still covered in lube."

Harry, who had been anxiously watching his professor inspecting the now dark red plug, turned his head towards Draco's very hot half-naked body sprawled on the bed. After a moment, his brain had finally caught up with his ears and Harry quickly mumbled, "Of course," before he cast the charm on the blond's now nicely stretched and inviting asshole.

After muttering a quick "Thanks," in return, Draco quickly got up and walked over towards the spruce chair which held his clothes, eager to finally be decent again.

Just as the blond was buckling up his trouser belt, Professor Greige spoke again. "While your anal cleaning charm was nearly perfect, Mister Potter, your lubrication charm was a bit off."

Both Harry and Draco were surprised at the last statement as they both could clearly see that the plug now was a deep red instead of the deep blue from before. _So, why wasn't it good?_ they wondered, exchanging a questioning glance. But before either of them could voice their protest, Professor Greige elaborated his latest statement.

"As you can see, the tip of the plug is a deep red colour while the area near the handle is more like a brown-reddish colour. This shows that the thickness of the lube decreased the farther up we go. But as the thickness near the tip is still sufficient and enough to ensure a proper lubrication, you'll still receive an Outstanding for your spellwork," he announced with a smile.

"Congratulations," Draco said to Harry, happy for his partner's success.

"Thanks," the brunet answered, glad that it was finally over. However, his relief and happiness only lasted for a few seconds as Professor Greige reminded him that Draco still had to perform the charms, preferably on Harry's own ass.

"So, Mister Malfoy, how would you like to cast the charms?" Professor Greige asked the blond.

"On Harry," he said, not even having to think about it. _But then, what was there to think about,_ he thought.

"Mister Potter?" Professor Greige turned towards the mentioned brunet, wanting to know if it would be okay with him.

But instead of the expected "It's okay with me," all Draco heard was silence.

"Mister Potter?" Professor Greige asked once more, starting to get impatient.

"Uhm..." Harry said, still not answering the unspoken question.

"Harry, you know perfectly well that I'm able to cast the charms without it hurting you" Draco said, obviously irritated. He couldn't understand why the brunet couldn't simply say yes. That Harry would hesitate to take off his boxer briefs, he already expected. But the blond had thought that at least there wouldn't be a reason to not allow Draco to cast the spells on him. So, he was really disappointed with Harry right now.

Surprisingly―or maybe not so surprisingly―Draco wasn't the only one who was disappointed with Harry; the brunet was disappointed with himself too. It wasn't like he didn't want to give Draco the opportunity to cast the charms on him instead of Professor Greige. It was just that he still was very self-conscious in regards to his body. Finally being able to wear clothes that fit him couldn't cure him of his low self-esteem overnight. Thus, Harry was still as shy as he was during the Altair celebration two months ago.

"This isn't the problem at all," Harry told Draco, wanting to explain his hesitation to his Altair partner. "It's just...ehm," Harry began but couldn't find the right words to express how he felt.

Having run out of patience as only eleven minutes were left of their current lesson, Professor Greige intervened. "Mister Malfoy, if Mister Potter doesn't want to offer his anus for the spell casting, you'll have to either cast the spells on me or on the tube," he told Draco in a stern voice.

Draco didn't answer Professor Greige. He really didn't want to see his professor's naked ass, but, on the other hand, he didn't want to have to cast the charms on the tube which would only get him an Acceptable at best. Thus, the blond was in a clinch. Pleadingly, he looked over at Harry, who had a sorrowful look on his face.

"Please, Harry," he begged. "Whatever it is that makes you hesitate, it can't be worse than facing that madman of a Dark Lord. So, gather up your Gryffindor courage and face whatever fears you have. Besides, you won't be able to remember it in ten minutes anyway," Draco tried in a last attempt to sway the brunet, getting a bit desperate.

In the end, it wasn't the fact that he wouldn't remember the event very soon or that he was the exemplary Gryffindor―the Sorting Hat's first choice was Slytherin after all―but rather a mixture of guilt and his saving-people-thing which influenced Harry's decision.

Guilt that he would be the one accountable if Draco would only get an Acceptable because he had to use the practice tube; or, worse, that Draco would have no choice but to cast the spells on their teacher when the blond had so readily offered his own body for Harry's test. It just didn't feel right to Harry.

And his saving-people-thing acted up because of the pleading, helpless and doomed look on the blond's face. No matter that he may have felt that he wouldn't be able to bear showing his naked ass to an adult―a teacher at that―he knew that he would feel even worse if he was the cause of Draco's sorrow, the reason that the blond, who had become very dear to him over the last nine days, looked so agitated.

"I'll do it," Harry said at last, resigned to his self-proclaimed fate and ever so slowly starting to take off his cloak.

Relief was clear on the blond's face when he finally heard the words he had waited for during the last three minutes.

_Finally,_ Professor Greige sighed in relief.

_You're doing it for Draco,_ Harry encouraged himself to continue as he started to unfasten his trousers, his face and neck a deep red colour. Walking over towards the bed with only his dark and grass green dotted briefs hiding his penis from view, he continued his inner monologue. _This would be so much easier to bear if I didn't need to strip in front of an audience. Why can't this bed be charmed like ours and automatically undress one as soon as one lies down on it? But it can't be helped now. The sooner I go through with it, the sooner it's over, _he thought and hastily pushed down his boxers, before he went to lie down on the bed and steeled himself for what was to come.

Harry shuddered when he felt the cold lube spreading inside his ass after Professor Greige cast the charm. _Why can't his lube at least be room temperature like Draco's, _the brunet complained in his mind.

"Mister Malfoy, if you would please cast the cleaning charm," Professor Greige requested the blond to proceed, who stepped towards Harry's body on the bed, the brunet's legs spread open, head buried in his arms.

"_Colluo culus_," Draco said, ending the spell with pointing the tip of his wand at the entrance of Harry's―in his opinion, very delicious―ass.

When Professor Greige handed over a fresh blue plug to Malfoy without casting the special lubrication charm, Draco glared at his teacher demanding with his eyes that he cast the special lubrication spell once more. While his glare resulted in the wanted casting of the _Ducatus sine praecipitatio_ charm, it also got out a low chuckle from Professor Greige.

_How typical for a Malfoy, _their professor thought, greatly amused by the demanding antics of the blond. _Though, one can't deny that fact that Malfoys always take good care of their Sexual Magic partners. No wonder that they're one of the most wanted Sexual Magic partners since they came to Britain from France some hundred years back._

To not hurt Harry, Draco very slowly inserted the plug, advising Harry to push whenever the resistance of the anus became too strong. Even though Draco was a bit mad at the brunet for hesitating, he still tried his best to make the insertion as painless as possible under the given circumstances.

Harry couldn't say that he enjoyed the experience much. Burying his hand in his arms, like an ostrich would bury his head in the sand, he tried to try to forget the fact that Professor Greige would surely be watching how Draco pushed the plug up his exposed ass. But still, the thought that someone who wasn't his blond partner was watching was always present at the back of his mind, constantly tormenting him and keeping his red flush alive.

He was glad though that their professor had at least provided some lube without him having to ask for some. Harry let out a sigh of relief when the plug was finally fully inserted. However his happiness didn't live long, as the blond was asked to take the plug back out again only two heart beats later.

_At least the extraction doesn't hurt as much as the insertion,_ Harry thought, relieved.

Inspecting the still deep blue plug, Professor Greige couldn't find even a single red line on it. _A true Malfoy, _he thought. _Excelling in the first test already._

After he handed the plug back to his student, the whole insertion process began once more._ One would think that after I already had it in me half a minute ago that this time it would go much more smoothly. But no such luck. How typical, _Harry thought, cynically. _At least this will be the final time that the thing is shoved into my ass._

His ass muscles tightened out of shock, making his inner walls tighten around the plug when he suddenly felt the effect of the cleaning charm as it was cast on him by his professor. _Di__d he cast the charm on Draco too?_ he wondered. _I hadn't notice any spells being cast before I cast the lubrication charm myself._

Wanting the whole thing to be over with, so that he could not only relieve Harry of his obviously uncomfortable position, but also wanting to be able to forget about the brunet's earlier hesitation, Draco quickly cast the anal lubrication charm after Professor Greige gave his permission.

After about twenty seconds, their teacher cast the cleaning charm followed by the non-reactive lubrication charm and then asked Malfoy to take out the plug for the final time.

_Finally it's over,_ both of them thought, happy to get out of the room soon.

"Ehm, Draco?" Harry called out from his ostrich impersonating position on the bed, wanting to get dressed again but wanting to get rid of the foreign lubrication first. Though, the realisation that he found it more disturbing that the lube currently covering his anus was created by his professor than that the lube would spoil his clothes was so amusing to him that it brought a smile on his face. _Funny that it is the opposite if Draco is the one who cast the lubrication charm,_ he thought. _Then I'm always worried that the lube will drip down and wet my briefs._

"Oh, sorry," the blond answered, knowing that his Altair partner wanted him to cast the cleaning charm, now that he was brought out of his thoughts to get out of there as soon as possible, not seeing the smile that was now present on Harry's face.

"Thanks," the brunet said when he finally was free of lube and could cover his private parts up again.

While Harry was busy re-dressing as soon as humanly possible, thinking that Hermione surely would know a spell which would have him dressed again in seconds, Professor Greige told Draco his result.

"Very well done, Mister Malfoy," he began. "It isn't every day that one meets someone who can cast a perfect anal lubrication charm. While many are able to lubricate the whole plug, it is rare that they can create a lube with an even thickness. As you can see, opposed to Mister Potter's, your plug has an uniform dark red colouring. So, your lube is not only even and covers the whole desired space but also is the perfect amount of lubrication. And your cleaning charm was perfect too." With that being said, he laid the plug into the used plug box.

Picking up his scroll, he notated his student's results before he filled out two slips of paper which he handed over to Draco and a now fully dressed Harry who stood beside the blond.

Looking down at their slips they read what was written on them:

_**~ Mr Potter  has achieved an/a  O+  in his/her anal cleaning and lubrication charms test.~**_

_**~ Mr Malfoy  has achieved an/a  O+  in his/her anal cleaning and lubrication charms test.~**_

Harry was surprised that not only Draco, but he too had gotten an O+. _Professor Greige clearly said that my lubrication charm wasn't perfect, so why the O+? _Harry wondered, surprised about his very good grade. Wanting to know the reason, he asked his professor.

"As I already told you, Mister Potter, your charms were enough to earn you an Outstanding. The plus you received was because you cared not only about your grade but also about the well-being of your partner, which is something which is very important and valued in Sexual Magic," Professor Greige explained.

"Theoretically, Mr Malfoy had earned an O++ because his spellwork was perfect and he also cared about your comfort, but as we don't have an O++, he only got an O+," he further explained. "As the lesson is nearly over, it's about time that we finally go back to the classroom."

And with that they left the room, leaving behind their memories of what happened in the last minutes, only two slips of paper and a grading scroll hinting at their time in the testing room.

However, it was a good thing that they left their memories about their tests behind the closed door. This way neither was able to remember Harry's hesitation as it had shaken the trust Draco had begun to build in the brunet. While Draco could understand that Harry wouldn't be very comfortable with stripping naked in front of their teacher, he had thought that after he had readily showed his naked butt to the room that the brunet would do the same for him without any second thoughts. It was fair, after all. And so, with only an O+ written on each of their grading slips, they would just assume that everything went smoothly in the testing room.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

When the walked back to their seats, Draco and Harry wondered why Blaise was smirking, again.

"So, did you have fun during your test?" the smirking boy asked, obviously hoping for some dirty story.

"How should we know, Blaise?" was all the answer he got from Draco, as the blond was sitting down in his seat. "It's not like we're able to remember what happened inside the room. So, how should we know if we had fun?"

"Oh, come on, Draco," the dark-skinned boy prodded. "With how the test was carried out, you surely should know if you had fun."

Before the Italian boy could rile Draco up even more, Harry asked, curious, "Why is that you remember what the test was like? Did the memory charms on your room not work?"

"They worked alright," Blaise informed Harry offhandedly. "But I'm certain you remember the explanation you got while walking towards the room, which is unaffected by the enchantments."

"No," Draco answered this time. "Professor Greige didn't say anything to us on our way towards the testing room."

"Oh, too bad then" Blaise answered, disappointed, but at least he had finally realised that, opposed to his wife, Professor Angus Greige hadn't explained the testing method outside of the influence of the memory charms to Harry and Draco.

"Do you want us to tell you how the test was carried out?" Hermione asked, eager to inform the two boys about the testing method she found very thrilling. _I have to go to the library in my free period and research how the colour changing plug works,_ she thought, eager to learn something new.

_Do I even want to know? _Harry and Draco asked themselves. "No, not really," they answered simultaneously, having a bad feeling.

"Don't be spoil-sports, you two. Let Hermione have her fun if she wants to tell you about the test," Blaise said to the two boys.

But before Hermione could begin her long explanation, Harry and Draco were saved by the bell, announcing that the class was over.

"Sorry, Hermione, but we have to go. See you later," Harry said, grabbing his stuff and rushing out of the room towards the safety of Room Zero, followed by Draco, who too hurried out of the room and met him back in the Altair common room.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Ducatus sine praecipitatio:** Latin for "lube without precipitation" according to Google translator. I based the colour changing effects of the plug on the Fehling's test. So, this special lube doesn't lead to the usual red precipitation of the Fehling's test like other lubes.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN: **I hope you liked reading this chapter. And if you were wondering while Harry's spells weren't perfect, it was because he is human and humans aren't perfect. Also, Harry wasn't sexually abused or anything but he simply feels self-conscious when he has to show his naked body to adults.

**Next:** I had planned for the next chapter to be a short interlude which is as good as finished, but as I haven't been able to include their Ritual Magic lesson in this chapter, it will be the chapter after next.


	24. Chapter 23 Bonds: Colourful threads

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **the usual sexual themes, nothing more though.

**Beta: **the wonderfulMakoto Sagara

**AN: **Here is the next chapter. A bit later than I hoped to update, but I had tests to prepare for. Anyway, enjoy reading even if the chapter is a bit short!

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 23 – Bonds: Colourful threads -~-~-**

_I wonder why I have a bad feeling about the testing process,_ Harry thought in the safety of Room Zero, relaxing in his armchair. _Still, I don't believe that asking Hermione how the test was carried out would be a good idea. Some things should better stay unknown. _

Harry's thinking process was interrupted when Draco entered their living room. "Let's hope that we can avoid Hermione telling us about the testing process when she comes by before Ritual Magic to read our books," the blond told Harry.

"Shit, I totally forgot that we promised her that she could read the books in here on Tuesdays," Harry exclaimed, sitting up straighter in his armchair.

"We could always leave while she's still in class," Draco suggested.

"And have her scolding me for the next two weeks about how wrong it is to not share my books?" the brunet countered.

"Why not? At least she will be too busy scolding you to come up with a plan to get our blood," the blond―oh so helpfully―pointed out.

"You know, if she did only receive an O, you could easily keep her busy for another week or two when you tell her that we got an O+," Draco continued.

_Draco isn't so far off with his assumption, _Harry thought. _Knowing her, she would work herself up to find out what she could have done better. But she most likely too received an O+ anyway. Besides, with the memory charms, neither of us knows what we did wrong or especially well._

"She will get our blood one way or another. So, why unnecessarily work her up about something neither of us can remember anyway?" Harry asked rhetorically. "To tell the truth, I would prefer it if we can get the whole revenge over and done with. It was a stupid idea from the beginning. The happiness about our successful brewing must have gone to my head, as I now sincerely regret that we did it. Especially since she told me that she would have admitted to be a dominant, if I had asked nicely."

"I'm not regretting it," Draco answered. "At least now I have a way to make Blaise stop his stupid and childish Head Boy jokes. Something I couldn't do if I wouldn't know the little spanking kink of his."

After a short pause, the blond asked, curious, "Though, does this mean that you don't want to find out Weasley's Typos Thesis any longer?"

"I don't know. It would be the right thing to just let it go; but, on the other hand, I'm still mad at him for his outburst last week and how convinced he was about Hermione being his. I fear that finding out his Typos Thesis is the only way to show him that he and Hermione aren't compatible," Harry admitted to Draco, undecided what to do about the whole Ron-problem. Neither he nor Hermione could understand why he hated Sexual Magic so much.

"But have you considered that the Lloj potion is a part of Sexual Magic, and thus Weasley won't believe in its result?" Draco pointed out the obvious flaw in Harry and Hermione's plan, something he had only realised just now himself. "Knowing him, he will just see is as an evil scheme or maybe a bad prank from his twin brothers, accusing everyone to conspire against him and '_his'_ Hermione being together, and say that the results have been tempered with."

"I hadn't thought about it like that," Harry admitted. "But now, when you're saying it that would be just like how he would react. I'll need to speak with Hermione about it," he said, losing himself in his thoughts.

Draco meanwhile got up and moved to their small kitchen area to prepare some sandwiches for the two of them. He seemed unable to resist having a Coke with lunch.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

When two o'clock rolled around, Harry and Draco got out of their armchairs to gather their stuff―invisibility cloak included―and waited for Hermione outside their door.

At five after two, Hermione still hadn't showed up and the two boys really needed to get going if they wanted to be on time for their next class. When they spotted Blaise walking up the stairs, Draco called out, "Where's Hermione?"

"She wanted to find out how the testing plugs work and ran off towards the library for research. She asked me to give you her excuses."

_Testing plugs?_ The both wondered. _What testing plugs? This doesn't have anything to do with our Basic test, does it?_ But, as they were in a hurry to get to their next class, they didn't question Blaise further on the topic. With a quick "Thanks" from Harry, the two boys rushed down the stairs towards the fortunately empty Altair common room. Donning his invisibility cloak, Harry hurried after Draco through the Slytherin common room and towards their Ritual Magic classroom.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"You're late," Professor Immaculé scolded when Harry and Draco entered her classroom mere seconds after the bell rang. "As a punishment you'll both write a one and a half foot long essay on the history of Ritual Magic we discussed the last time in addition to today's essay. Is this understood?" she asked, glaring at them.

"Yes," both of them answered obediently.

_It seems like she doesn't only look like a younger McGonagall, but also acts like one,_ they both thought.

_Though, at the beginning of last week's lesson she already reminded me more of Snape with her strict behaviour,_ Harry added to his thoughts. _He too wouldn't have hesitated to assign an extra essay as punishment for being ten seconds late for class._

_I just hope that Thothus theory is correct, or I fear what she will do to us if she finds out that we aren't virgins any longer,_ the both thought in unison again.

"Good," Professor Immaculé said cheerfully when she heard their agreement, oblivious to her students' fearful thoughts. "Now, let's sit down, have some tea and talk about your Typos Thesis before we will find out what your current bonding status is and then decide on a suitable bonding ritual for you two."

_She sure seems to have a split personality, _Draco thought as his professor went from strict and angry to cheerful and inviting.

"So," Professor Immaculé began, resting her chin on her hands. "What is your Typos Thesis?" she asked, obviously very curious about Harry's Typos Thesis in particular as she was expectantly looking at the current hero of Wizarding Britain when she asked the question.

"Draco is a mainly dominant top and I'm a mainly submissive bottom," Harry answered her, as she was looking at him, turning red because of her staring.

"No kinks?" she probed further, amused by Harry's red cheeks.

"No, none," Harry answered, shaking his head.

_How very surprising,_ Professor Immaculé thought. Out loud she said, "How very unfortunate. Your kinks would have helped reducing the number of possible bonding rituals. But it seems like we'll be spoilt for choice. So, we better get started with finding out what kind of ritual you'll need."

Both Harry and Draco watched with curiosity and a hint of threat as Professor Immaculé took out her beech wand to cast the very complex spell which would reveal the bonding status between every person in a five metre radius around the caster.

As they both had done their homework for this lesson, which was to read the first two chapters of their textbook, they knew that this spell would create small coloured threads between all individuals, the colour depending on the strength of their bond―from non-existing to a fifth order bond. These magical bonds usually were formed automatically based on your emotions, but the bond could also be synthetically formed or strengthened through Ritual Magic.

Green threads meant that no magical bond between the two individuals existed, sometimes referred to as the zeroed order bond. It usually only connected strangers or people you only know in passing, like the supermarket cashier which face was well known to you even if you didn't know their names or anything else about them.

And up to now, no case existed in which one could reduce any other bond to a zeroed order bond once a bond of the first order or stronger had been formed. At least not without killing one or both of the individuals involved.

Yellow meant that the two shared a bond of the first order, a bond shared between well-known acquaintances, though one wouldn't call them friends. Also, it was usually shared between teacher and student. All in all, magic had the tendency to create a first order bond between people who regularly interacted with each other.

The colour orange showed a bond of the second order. If teacher and student shared a mentorship relation, like Neville and Professor Sprout did, then their bond usually was much stronger than the average teacher-student one and the colour of their bond would be much closer to orange than to yellow.

The next strongest bond was connected with red threads, and, more often than not, the colours orange and red were found as a mix, as both the second and third order bonds, were found between good friends and family members. Usually the ratio of red was higher between family members or if the people regarded their friends more like siblings, as Hermione and Harry did.

The author of their textbook also noted that a bond between the second and third order would not only be created between friends, but they were also easily unconsciously formed between adversaries. Draco commented this part with, "Ah, the thin line between love and hate." Which agreed with the author's opinion that even if it is a relationship build of hate and anger, the two persons still regularly interacted with each other and cared about each other in the 'what the hell are they up to now' kind of view. But still, an enemy is an integral part of one's life.

The only case when the colour of the thread could be clearly identified as red was if the two persons were married to each other but had not consummated their marriage yet. The reason behind this was that Wizarding marriages were actually a bonding ritual, not just only a simple vow to show the love the two involved shared. It was designed to form a forth order bond, but with everything else being part of Sexual Magic, it only would reach this state after intercourse between the newly-weds. Though, in rare cases, the colour still remained red after the marriage was consummated, but the reason behind this peculiarity was still unknown to the wizards and witches of the late twentieth century.

But, if all went well, the spell would create violet threads between the married couple, to show that they shared a bond of the fourth and second highest order. This bond was also the last bond order which can be completely artificially created with the help of Ritual Magic. Though, this state could also be achieved naturally if the pair were _'soul mates'_―or as some other authors like to call them, a highly compatible pairing in body, mind, character and magic. Either way, it was something which was very, very rare.

If one of the later pairings additionally performed a marriage bond, then they would be able to reach the highest bonding level in existing, a bond of the fifth order. This order was connected with the colour blue. And as _'soul mates_' were very rare and one didn't cast the bond order revealing spell like Dumbledore handed out lemon drops, only very few had ever seen blue threads being formed between a pair.

Some theorist said that twins, who normally shared a natural fourth order bond, would be able to achieve a fifth order bond, but as the laws forbid marriage between siblings, their theory had never been proven. And without one of the marriage bonding rituals one could not reach a fifth order bond.

So, with the knowledge the three occupants of the Ritual Magic classroom had, all of them were more than shocked to say the least when the thread that came into existence between Harry and Draco was not a mix between orange and red, but a clear violet.

"Well, this surely is a surprise," Professor Immaculé said, her astonishment over the boys' result clearly showed in a stronger than normal accent. While she had expected the yellowish-green threads between her and her students, she had at the best hoped to see red coloured threads between the boys.

Harry and Draco weren't faring any better. They too were surprised that they apparently already were in a fourth order bond. Even with Thothus' journal saying that their bond would be stronger than normal, Draco didn't expect anything more than a clear red.

_Is losing your virginity to each other on your own terms really so strong that it basically forms the same bond as if we had a marriage ritual before having sex?_ _Or can it even artificially make you into 'soul mates'?_ Draco wondered. _I wouldn't have expected anything more than a deep red, a more magenta-like tone at the best_, he thought.

_Thank God that we didn't end up with a yellow thread. The theory in the journal of Malfoy's ancestor must be right, _was what Harry thought about the unexpected colour. He was relieved that it had all worked out as planned, better than planned to be accurate.

But as the shock of the unexpected high bond lessened, Professor Immaculé realised that the two young men sitting opposed her had to have been assigned to Room Zero for a reason. "At least now we won't need to find a bonding ritual for you, as you won't need it. Except, will the two of you want to marry to reach the highest bonding level? Or have you forgotten to tell me that you became married since our last lesson?" she asked, joking.

"N-No," both Draco and Harry stammered out, still in shock.

Though, the brunet sent Draco a questioning look, asking if they may have accidentally performed a marriage ritual. To tell the truth, he wouldn't be too surprised if they actually ended up performing a marriage bond, as Harry Potter didn't seem to do anything the normal way. So, why should marrying be an exception? If everyone else planned to get married, it would be the Harry Potter way to be married to someone and not even be aware of it.

As the blond didn't know what happened, he could only shrug his shoulder in answer. However, he would have to find a way to test if they'd managed to get married by accident or not.

"Mhm," Professor Immaculé started her sentence, "we still have about half an hour of the lesson left. Originally, I had planned to let you work on your essay about the bonding ritual you would perform if we found a ritual for you very quickly, but as you two don't need to perform a bonding ritual, we'll start with your lessons in cleaning rituals.

"Though, this does not mean you don't have an essay about bonding rituals to write. As only a marriage will strengthen your bond, your homework is to write a two foot essay on at least four different marriage bonds, their pros and cons, and an additional five inches on why you would choose one of the bonding rituals for yourself," she told them, having to improvise a bit as for the Ritual Magic lessons the pair only required a bond between the third and fourth order, so with their fourth order bond the boys' bond was already stronger than necessary.

"If you'll excuse me, I have to get some demonstration materials from the storage room," Professor Immaculé said before leaving the classroom.

"I can already imagine tomorrow's_ Prophet_ headline," Draco commented on their assignment as soon as the door closed behind their teacher. "'_**Boy Who Lived Researching Marriage Ritual**__**―**__**Who Is the Lucky Bride?'**_" he said, his right hand moving in a half circle from left to right as he spoke the headline. "Skeeter will sure as hell have a field day with it. And I'm sure Weasley will love to read how she once again accused you of having a secret affair with Hermione."

Harry could only groan.

As it was not everyday that you got the opportunity to see the hero of the Wizarding world totally mortified, Draco decided to continue with the teasing. "And the day after we surely will read something like, _**'Ronald Weasley Goes Berserk in the Great Hall**__**―**__**Is BWL's Bride Actually a Groom?'**_" the blond suggested, remembering the article from the Triwizard tournament about Harry and Hermione and how Ron had been Harry's most important person. He explained this headline that Ron's "No, Harry, you can't marry Hermione" could be easily interpreted as something else on the redhead's part.

_Great, now even my friends are dragged into it, _Harry thought, letting out an irritated groan as he buried his head in his folded arms, trying to escape the teasing.

"It also could be_ **'Love Triangle-Potter Desperate to Find Three-Folded Bonding Ritual'** _or something similar. It is always better for the selling to have a nice cat fight between Hermione and Ron over Harry. Especially since she would have a lot to write about. I can already imagine her comparing Hermione and Ron in categories like children_―_no children;_ Muggleborn_―Pureblood; Academic―Quidditch. Maybe the _Prophet_ will even do a vote on it," Draco said.

In answer Harry turned his head, so that he could look up at Draco and say sarcastically, "You know, you're a _great_ friend and Altair partner," before he buried his head in his hands once more.

"I know," the blond answered offhandedly. "And because I'm such a _great_ friend, I'll write to my parents to ask them to owl me some of our books on marriage bonds from the Malfoy library." _I'll need to write to them anyway to find out if we accidentally married. Knowing __Harry, it could easily be the case,_ Draco added in his mind.

That made Harry look up and lift his head from his hands, an astounded look on his face.

"Come on, Harry. I'd only been joking," Draco said with a small chuckle. "I want to be caught studying marriage bonds in the library as much as you do."

"Couldn't you have said that right from the start?" the brunet asked, grumpily.

"Ehm...No. Your reaction was too good to pass," the blond informed him.

"Can't you do it at someone else's expense?" Harry asked.

"I could," was Draco's joyful answer. "But I don't think that you'd be too happy if I'd asked Hermione or Blaise to get the books for us and accidentally let Weasley see either of them taking the books out. He would only go on another of his rampages, thinking that Blaise and Hermione wanted to marry."

"God, no!" Harry exclaimed, not even wanting to imagine that particular disaster.

"Thought so," the blond answered dryly, just in time for their teacher to re-enter the classroom.

"Let's start with the lesson on cleaning rituals," Professor Immaculé said, putting down a box full of demonstration materials next to the pillow she was sitting on.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN: **If you wonder, if someone had cast the bond revealing spell on Harry and Draco at the beginning of their sixth year where they still had been school nemesis the colour would have been a mixture between red and orange, leaning more to red considering how obsessed Harry was about Draco that year. ;)

**Next:** A short interlude before we will have a time skip. It should be up in a week's time or so.


	25. Ch 24 10 inches essays on Typos Thesis

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Talk", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written stuff**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes, mentioning of torture kink

**Beta: **Makoto Sagara

**AN: **This chapter is more of an interlude than a real chapter, but I wanted to show how Harry and Draco felt about their Typos Thesis. Also, there will be a time skip after this chapter to the beginning of October.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 24 – Ten inches essays on Typos Thesis-~-~-**

**Thursday, 11th September 1997, Sexual Potions Classroom**

Two hours after lunch had been served in the Great Hall, Professor Silas Essentjelly settled down in his comfy, black leather chair behind his antique hornbeam desk in his Sexual Potion classroom to continue yesterday's task of grading his students' essays on their Typos Thesis. After the nearly **eighty inches** **long essay*** from Miss Granger and the fifty inches Mr Zabini wrote, he hopped that the remaining papers weren't much longer than the required ten inches. Otherwise, he feared that he would not be able to finish marking them before the weekend.

_I hope that those two essays had only been so long because of their excitement to have a new subject and that they will become shorter over the next weeks,_ Silas Essentjelly thought. _Though, if what Severus told me is true, then Miss Granger will still be writing at least twice the required length by the end of the school year, if not even four times as much, _he thought with a sigh.

_No wonder Severus has always rejected to teach Sexual Potions, even if before his time the current Potions master usually had taught both, the regular and the Sexual Potions class. How did he put it? 'Why should I trouble myself with teaching dunderheads if I can't even scare them after the class ends because I can't remember who they are? Have fun sitting in your favourite chair and cursing Miss Granger's unworldly long essays without knowing who of the seventh years is the source for your increased workload', _Silas remembered his _fellow Potions mastership apprentice's words from the start of the year staff meeting._

Now, he could see the point in his friend's argument. He really had started to get a bit frustrated yesterday evening with whoever had had the nerve to give him eight times the amount he requested. And, unlike Severus, he did not glare at students only because he suspected them―not that he was eating in the Great Hall in the first place, as he only was at Hogwarts once a week, or in this case only came so that he could finish correcting the essays.

As reassuring it had been as a student to know that the special parchment bought at Timber and Bonker's―a parchment which was drenched in a personalised** Vāstavika svāmī kī sthāna* **potion, mostly shorten to Vāstavika_―_would only allow the keyed individual to bring it out of the Altair rooms―thus ensuring that the teachers couldn't try to figure out who his students were. It was now very annoying to have to come all the way from **Ixworth*** to Hogsmead and walk all the way up to the school, only because he could not take the scrolls home with him. _Damn, the privacy measures,_ he thought, looking at the still large pile of unmarked parchments.

_Cursing won't make them correct themselves, so I better start, before I have to come back again tomorrow,_ he said to himself as he noticed that his small rant had cost him ten minutes of valuable correcting time. _Here we go,_ he thought, picking up the first unmarked scroll from his desk.

Unrolling it, he was relieved to see that the text was only about twelve inches long. Looking at the name written in the upper right corner of the parchment, he was even more surprised by the shortness. _I would have expected the occupants of Room Zero to be the ones to write the overly long essays. Thank Merlin that they didn't or I would never see the end of it,_ he thought relieved.

_**~H. Potter~**_

_**~The Lloj potion revealed my Typos Thesis to be mainly submissive and mainly bottom, while my partner is a mainly dominant and a mainly top. Thus, both of our roles and position are highly compatible as they complement each other perfectly.**_

_**The advantage of such a pairing is that it allows both of us the take on either role or position without it having a negative effect on the potion. Consequently, we're able to brew a wide range of Sexual Potions because we're not restricted by our roles and positions. This is especially beneficial if one of us is uncomfortable with performing a certain task.**_

_**A good example for this is the Lloj potion. While I am still undecided if I prefer the top or bottom position, (even if the Lloj potion says that I should favour to bottom,) it was a great relief to have the chance to decide for ourselves who would perform what part, according to our Potions skills and not according to our Typos Thesis.**_

_**If one looks at my Typos Thesis on its own, then it is fortunate to be a mainly bottom and a mainly submissive, as being a bottom naturally makes it easier to take on a submissive role.**_

_**While being a mainly submissive simply means that you most of the time are the one to perform the passive role during the copulation, being a male mainly bottom entails much more. For example, it includes that one has to properly prepare oneself. This doesn't only mean that you perform the anal cleaning charm, but that you also properly lubricate your rectum. Either be it with the help of the anal lubrication charm or doing it by hand with oils or similar substances. Also, it is important that the bottom is properly stretched, be it by fingering or the use of an anal plug.**_

_**The most important, and in my opinion hardest, part is that a male bottom must be able to relax himself so that the penetration doesn't hurt too much and that the rectum won't be torn or otherwise hurt. Without being able to relax, even the best lubrication and stretching won't be able to make it comfortable for the bottom. While, in the beginning, it hurts to be penetrated, after a while it feels nice to be filled. Mostly, it has to do with the additional stimulation of the prostate which the bottom receives as it makes the sex even more arousing.**_

_**Considering that I am also slightly a dominant top according to the Lloj potion, I am also able to take on the active role as the top. The most important part of being a top is that one must make sure that the bottom is properly lubricated and stretched, but must pay even more attention to slowly penetrate the bottom so that the other has enough time to adjust and relax, even if the wonderful feeling of the other's tightness makes it hard to go slow.~**_

_This is exactly what I intended them to write,_ Silas thought after having finished reading Harry's essay, happy that one of his students had realised for themselves what the real purpose of the essay was. Therefore, he marked the homework with an _**~O~**_.

_Even if I didn't explicitly tell them, I wanted them to not simple-mindedly copy what the textbooks said about their Typos Thesis. It is important that they do not simply accept that they are masochists because the Lloj potion says they are one. They should take the time to reflect about what their Typos Thesis means and if it is what they really want, to test if they do enjoy it or if the potion was wrong._

_Also, there are so many possible sexual inclinations out there that the students' textbooks can't cover all of them. While the textbooks say that **heliotrope*** means that one simply enjoys role play, an** orchid*** colour stands for being turned on by the Cruciatus curse, _Silas thought, remembering his classmates Bellatrix Lestrange's Lloj potion with a shudder, as being inside the Sexual Potion classroom enabled him to recall his own school time. While he at first had believed it to be heliotrope, he only had learned doing his Potions apprenticeship about the different meaning the nearly similar colour orchid held.

_Let's see if the second occupant of Room Zero also has realised that it is important to question the textbooks,_ Professor Essentjelly thought, picking up the next scroll which was written by Draco Malfoy, to distract himself from further unwanted thoughts about his pupil's dead aunt.

_**~Draco Malfoy~**_

_**~The Pros and Cons of my Typos Thesis**_

_**~According to the result I've gotten from the Lloj potion my Typos Thesis is the following:**_

_**+Position: mainly top**_

_**+Role: mainly dominant**_

_**+Additional inclinations: none**_

_**The main disadvantage of my Typos Thesis is that I don't have any additional inclinations, thus if a specific sexual kink is part of the performance of Sexual Magic, be it as a part of Sexual Potions or Warding, then I will have to force myself to go through with it, instead of it further enhancing the lust.**_

_**However, since people usually don't have more than one to four sexual kinks, this isn't a very big disadvantage. Everyone practising Sexual Magic will sooner or later come across something they do not especially enjoy. Thus, in the end, the number of things I don't especially enjoy is simply a little higher than that of the average witch or wizard.**_

_**Furthermore, the real disadvantage with the special kinks only arises if one dislikes or hates it, not if one is indifferent to it. For this, one would need to find out once **__Antipathoun Tis Katatasesos__*****__**via the**__Zët__*** potion, though this is a**__**n entirely different**__** matter.**_

_**The main advantage of my Typos Thesis is that both my position and my role inclinations are not absolute. Together with my partner's mainly submissive and mainly bottom Typos Thesis, this allows us to achieve any possible combination of the roles and positions without it greatly affecting the strength of the Sexual Magic because neither role nor position is strictly against our nature. For example, we could, without problems, brew a potion which requires both participants to be competitive dominants.**_

_**The second advantage is that while we are able to switch, there still is a defined power dynamic, thus we are also able to brew potions where there has to be a determined leader.**_

_**Another advantage gained from the ability to switch is that we can experience each other's view of things. Thus, we're able to put ourselves in each other's position and adjust our actions to make it as easy as possible for our partner during the performance of a critical point during in a Sexual Magic practice.**_

_**All in all, my and my partner's Typos Thesis is very advantageous for Sexual Potions and Sexual Magic in general. Nevertheless, one still has to consider the probability that my Sexual Magic partner may change in the future. Thus, I will shortly outline the advantages my mainly Typos Thesis' position and role have on their own.**_

_**The benefit of simultaneously being a top and a dominant is that being a top makes is easier to take control of the actions, therefore supporting the dominant role. The drawback of this double leading position is that one is responsible for the well-being of the partner and that they are properly prepared.**_

_**While one may argue that the above is not the case, but that both partners are responsible for proper preparations, in my opinion, the dominant carries the final responsibility as he is the one who sets the pace and in general is the one in control of the actions. He has to ensure that all participants are comfortable and at ease during the whole event.**_

_**In short, my major Typos Thesis, dominant top, is one which brings a great responsibility but my minor Typos Thesis, submissive bottom, makes it possible to give the reins to my partner so that I can experience the other side too and therefore can relate to both positions and roles and base my decisions according to my own experiences.~**_

_Interesting, _Professor Essentjelly thought, after he had finished reading Draco's twenty inches long essay._ While Mr Potter's essay in general had been rather personal, his partner mainly concentrated on the academic aspects. Though they both only seem to agree with the role the Lloj potion revealed to them, they seem to be still unsure what position they prefer_, Silas thought, giving the blond teen an Outstanding for his work, as Draco too had questioned the Typos Thesis the Lloj potion had revealed him to be, even if it only was between the lines.

Or at least this is how Professor Essentjelly interpreted Draco's essay. In his opinion, the fact that Mr Malfoy had strictly separated being a dominant and being a top in the last part of his essay, where he argued who was responsible for a proper preparation, showed that he currently only identified himself with the role of a dominant, or otherwise he would not have apportioned his Typos Thesis.

_Also, I like that he did not restrict the importance of the Typos Thesis purely in to Sexual Potions but did also touch the topic of the Antipathoun Tis Katatasesos and that the Typos Thesis is also important in other Sexual Magic practices. But, considering that the Malfoys have always been talented in Sexual Magic, it isn't surprising that he would widen his horizon, _Professor Essentjelly mused, laying the scroll aside to pick up the next one for marking.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"Finally," Professor Essentjelly announced to the empty room, after he finished marking the last paper around dinner time. As he laid the last scroll down with the others, his eyes found Hermione's and Blaise's long essays, thinking,_ maybe I should move the lesson on how to brew the Vāstavika svāmī kī sthāna Potion forward?_

_Or maybe not, _Professor Essentjelly decided after thinking a bit about it._ If I'm lucky,__Timber and Bonker's will run out of it and these two will be forced to reduce their writing because they don't have enough specialized parchment. Though, with them being Altair partners, it won't be long after I teach them the Vāstavika before they will start to write overly long essays again because they can surely brew the potion for themselves with how their Lloj potion sample looks._

With a last sigh at the thought of having to correct Miss Granger's long essays for a whole school year, he closed up his classroom to finally go home and have some dinner.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**eighty inches** **long essay: **ten inches is about one A4 page, so Hermione wrote about eight pages instead of the required one, while Blaise wrote five.

**Ixworth**: It is a village which really exist. It lies in Suffolk, England. I've never been there though.

**Vāstavika svāmī kī sthāna:** Hindi for "Place of the true owner" according to Google translator.

In this story it is a potion in which you drench your parchments to ensure that only you can remove the parchment from a room. So, while everyone can pick up the parchment and read it, only the person keyed in to the potion is able to move the parchment to another room, thus the teachers can read and write on their students' homework but can't go running with them to the _Prophet_.

It belongs to the human ingredient category (like the Polyjuice Potion), so they will learn about it around December/January in this story.

**Heliotrope/orchid:** Both are shades of purple which look rather similar. You can see a comparison on my deviantart page. The link is on my profile page.

**Antipathoun Tis Katatasesos:** Greek for "dislike of the condition/situation/state" according to Google translator. It is the counterpart to the Typos Thesis.

**Zët:** Albanian for "Dislike" according to Google translator

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN: **I hope you enjoyed reading that short chapter written from Professor Essentjelly's perspective, even if it had a lot of new information in it. The next chapter will have some plot development again.


	26. Chapter 25 Finding a Halloween Ritual

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes and kinks

**AN: **I wanted to update sooner, but due to RL my beta hadn't had to the to take a look at it. But, as this is the extra long chapter for Altair's one year anniversary I'm posting the unbetaed version now, before March is over.

A big thank you goes to Sevfan from the hexfiles for proofreading this chapter.

I hope you like it anyway and maybe Altair could get its 200th review for the one year anniversary?

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 25 –Finding a Halloween Ritual-~-~-**

Saturday, 4th October 1997

Time flew by at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The weather got harsher in Scotland and the trees were about to lose their last leaves. But, this went mostly unnoticed by both Harry and Draco as they were too busy with their NEWTs classes and their Altair electives to take much notice of their changing environment.

So far, the two boys had kept any sexual interactions restricted to their Altair classes. It wasn't like Draco wouldn't like it if he and Harry would become more than only Altair partners―he would love it actually―but, Draco knew that for Harry he was currently nothing more than a good friend at best with whom Harry shared a bed and exchanged the daily good night or good morning kiss with, so that neither of them would feel like a whore as the brunet had put it a month ago.

For Draco it was just all so frustrating. He really wanted to take their relationship to the next level, but he knew that Harry wasn't ready for this yet. And while the blond, if he wanted, could use the excuse of practising for their Altair electives to become more intimate with his room mate, he would never do this. If he and Harry would be together one day, then he wanted it to be real with sincere feelings involved, not just a simple loveless arrangement built on Slytherin manipulation.

So, for now, he would have to bide his time, waiting for Harry to fall in love with him. At least he could be relatively sure that Harry would return his feelings someday―hopefully someday soon rather than in ten years. Though, Draco still wondered if this assurance had really been worth the embarrassment he had suffered when he had ask his godfather Severus about the **Matrimonio*** Potion.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Flashback—Thursday, 11th September 1997

Two days after his second Ritual Magic class he finally received a package which not only contained four books on marriage bonds, but also some new sweets, as well as a letter from his parents.

_**~Dear Draco,**_

_Here are the books on the different marriage bonds you wanted. We hope that they'll suffice, otherwise owl us again and we'll send you more. Though, we have to say that it surely is an unusual topic for Ritual Magic. As far as we know, one of the first assignments is usually about the bonding ritual the Altair pair will undergo and not about marriage bonds._

_You made us even more curious when you also asked about ways to test if two people are married. We hope that when you come home for the Yule holidays and hopefully bring Mr Potter with you, you'll tell us why you're suddenly so interested in marriage bonds._

_But, to answer your question, there is a potion which shows if two people are married. Just go to your godfather and ask for the Matrimonio Potion. Knowing him, he should have a bottle of it lying around. He can explain to you how it works._

_Love,_

_your mother and father~_

Draco, of course, hadn't gone straight to Severus for the Matrimonio Potion. He knew that it wouldn't go over well if he explained to the Potions master why he needed that particular potion. Because, irrespective of how it turned out, Severus wouldn't like that his godson was either married to the bane of his existence or was the supposed soul mate of the same nuisance. The blond couldn't even decide which outcome would be worse for his godfather.

So, Draco decided that he would go to the library instead and find the recipe for the Matrimonio Potion. His Potions skills should be good enough that he should be able to brew it on his own and no one, especially not Severus, would be the wiser. Useless to say, Draco's brilliant plan didn't work out in the end as a day later found the blond boy standing outside of his godfather's office door.

_Why does the potion has to have Boomslang skin as an ingredient and also needs three ladybugs which were soaked in lavender oil for a year?_ Draco wondered about the Matrimonio Potion's ingredients, which forced him to go to his godfather after all. He took a final deep breath to brace himself before he raised his hand to knock at Severus' office door.

"Enter," Professor Snape called out from behind the closed door.

"Hello, Severus," Draco greeted his godfather, indicating with the use of the first name that it was a private visit and not one in his function as the Head Boy.

"What can I do for you, Draco?" the Potions master asked.

"My parents said that you would have a bottle of the Matrimonio Potion," Draco stated, hiding behind the Malfoy mask of superiority.

"And why, pray tell, would you need the Matrimonio Potion?" Snape asked. He was very curious why his godson would ask him about this special potion which was rarely used nowadays.

As far as he knew, the blond's parents hadn't signed any marriage contracts, therefore it couldn't be because of the well-tried case where someone wanted to marry someone else than the one their parents had selected for them and needed the potion to show that they were already married to the love of their life. Thus, they couldn't marry whoever their parents had picked out for them anymore.

And Severus didn't think that Draco would be one of those modern young man who where in love with someone older than them either and were too shy to ask their love-interest if they were married and thus had to find it out behind their infatuation's back. So, Severus was very curious indeed why Draco would have a need for that particular potion.

"Because I may have somehow gotten married to Harry?" the blond made his sentence into a question.

The Potions master needed a moment to comprehend what had just been said. Surely he couldn't have heard right._ Draco thought that he was married to Potter? How the hell did he come up with such a thing?_ Severus asked himself.

"And why do you believe that you and Potter may have gotten married?" he asked in the voice he usually had reserved for all the dunderheads in his Potions classroom, especially Potter and Ronald Weasley.

"You know about the spell which shows you what bond you share with someone?" Draco asked, to which Severus nodded in agreement, so Draco continued. "The Ritual Magic teacher cast the spell on Tuesday and a violet thread formed between the two of us," the blond explained, not having to say any more as Severus knew perfectly fine what this colour meant.

The Potions master led out an annoyed groan. _That is _so _typical for Potter, _he thought. _Even if we are finally rid of the Dark Lord, he still gets into all kind of trouble and I have to pay for it. Great, just great,_ Snape cursed in his head.

"Wait here, I'll go and get you the potion," Severus finally said. He really needed a moment alone and preferably also grab a glass of Firewhisky on his way to his private Potions store, not caring that it was only shortly after two in the afternoon.

_Really, I don't even know what would be worse; Potter being married to Draco or them being soul mates?_ Professor Snape questioned himself. After he drowned his big helping of Firewhisky, he decided that them being soul mates would be worse.

_If they really are soul mates, then they will most likely end up marrying someday soon anyway. So, they would be both married and soul mates instead of just being married, _he argued. _If they're only married, Lucius at least won't be able to brag about his son having a very rare fifth order bond with Potter of all people._

_Let's hope that Potter with his luck somehow ended up doing an old marriage ritual,_ Severus thought when he re-entered his office.

"Here you go," he said harshly as he handed a small bottle with a yellow potion inside it to Draco. "Simply put one of yours and one of Potter's hairs in it. After a minute or two, the potion will turn brown if you're not married and a horrid pink if you are."

"Thank you, Severus," Draco said when he accepted the bottle. He was surprised that he hadn't even heard one insult from his godfather. He had expected that he would hear how Severus would curse Harry to hell and back.

"If that was all, I have essays to correct," the Potions master dismissed the blond, his previously good mood from before Draco's arrival was gone.

"No, that was all. Bye, Severus," Draco said happily, turning around to leave the office. He knew when he should just leave his godfather alone.

"Oh, and Draco?" Severus stopped the blond before he was out of the door. "If you find out that you are indeed married, inform me immediately. I'll surely enjoy the Howlers your mother and Mrs Weasley will send when they find out that they don't get to plan your wedding," the black-haired teacher said with a cruel smile on his face. The face the blond made was a small payback for what he made Severus live through.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Draco waited until the evening to make use of the potion. As he for now didn't want Harry to know about it, he decided that he would just use a hair from the brunet's comb. After all, a hair was a hair, so it wouldn't matter where it was taken from.

With bated breath, the blond waited for seventy seconds for the yellow Matrimonio Potion to change colour after he added both hairs. He wondered if this was how Muggle women felt when they waited to find out if they were pregnant or not. Though, Draco wondered if being pregnant would resemble being married or being soul mates. Probably the former, he decided just as the potion finally changed its colour.

_Brown...the potion turned brown,_ Draco thought unbelievingly. _We're not married. Thank Merlin, I won't have to face my mother's and Mrs Weasley's wrath. Severus' last words had really scared me about telling them that they wouldn't get to plan a big fat wedding party,_ Draco thought in relief.

When he had calmed down from his shock, he belatedly realised, _If we aren't married, then the violet thread must mean that we're soul mates?_ Draco thought. It all was still rather unrealistic to him.

After disposing the potion five minutes later, Draco slowly got up from his position on the toilet seat and entered the bedroom. _It seems like I still have time to decide if I want to tell Harry that we're not married but have to be soul mates instead,_ the blond thought as he saw that Harry was already fast asleep on his side of the bed. _Finishing most of his homework under Hermione's supervision must have exhausted him_, he thought as he climbed into the bed. The Head Girl could be a real slave driver when it came to not let her two Quidditch playing best friends slack off with their homework because of their weekly practices, especially since it was their NEWTs year.

**End Flashback**

~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Saturday, 4th October 1997

Even after nearly a month Draco still hadn't told Harry that they weren't married and thus had to be soul mates instead. The reason why he had decided to not tell Harry about the outcome of the Matrimonio Potion was that he knew the brunet too well.

While he would have liked to relieve Harry of his fear that they accidentally married, he was also sure that the fact that they consequently had to be soul mates would somehow pressure the brunet to act according to this prediction. And the blond really didn't want Harry to force himself to pretend that he had feelings for Draco that weren't there yet, just because it was expected for soul mates to be all lovey-dovey.

Merlin, they both knew that with the prophecy Harry already had had enough expectations to fulfil for a lifetime. So, the brunet really didn't need anything else dictating how he should behave, act or feel. Therefore, Draco decided to act according to the saying 'speech is silver, but silence is golden', and to wait until Harry fell in love with him on his own accord since the blond could do without any pretences, especially if it concerned his love life.

And while he didn't know if he was already in love with Harry, Draco at least could say for sure that he was already falling for the brunet. Not because he was Harry fucking Potter―Boy Who Lived, Saviour of the Wizarding World and Defeater of Voldemort.

No, he was falling for the brunet because _Harry_ was a wonderful person. The blond liked that Harry was easy to be around with and made one feel safe in his company. Also, the brunet was not only a great friend―even if Draco still thought that Ronald Weasley didn't deserve Harry's friendship―but he also wanted to help everyone and was also very forgiving.

And because of his helpful nature, Harry had decided to become a Healer. At first the blond had been surprised when he was told that the hero of the Wizarding world didn't want to become an Auror. But now, two weeks later he could clearly see that a Healer would be the perfect job for him. While it would appease his saving-people-thing, it would also allow Harry to relax―as much as one could with having to attend to emergency room patients―but at least he wouldn't need to be on high alert all the time anymore, always looking over his back in case someone attacked him.

As an Auror he would have had to not only chase after criminals but would have to fear that the accomplices of the same criminals may attack him out of revenge when he was on vacation, as they didn't care if Harry happened to be on duty or not. And who wouldn't want to say that they had gotten one over the Boy Who Lived? Besides, as an Auror Harry and his cases would make the front page of the_ Prophet_ every other day, while as a Healer his achievements would stay private because of the medical confidentiality. So, after he thought about it, a Healer really was the perfect job for Harry in Draco's opinion.

The blond also admired that, to realise this dream, Harry worked really hard on his Potions skills as he would need at least an Exceeds Expectations in his Potions NEWTs to be admitted into the Healer training program. Draco had already promised Harry that if the brunet would have any problems with brewing a specific healing potion during his Healer training, that he would practise it together with him. As a prospective Potions master it wouldn't hurt him either to brew some off of the agenda healing potions, so both of them would gain from the deal.

Over the past weeks watching the Gryffindor Quidditch practice had become a habit for Draco. Not because he wanted to spy on the rival team, but simply because he loved to watch how carefree Harry was in the sky. Unlike him, the brunet seemed to be able to forget everything else when he was up in the air, enjoying the opportunity the limitless sky offered. Though, Draco had to admit that the fact that he could ogle Harry's fit and attractive body at the same time without the other knowing about it was a bonus.

And while he knew very well that Harry wasn't weak―he had defeated the Dark Lord after all―Harry still had a vulnerable side to him, which made Draco want to be the one to protect the brunet from everyone and everything that wanted to harm him, to be the shoulder Harry could cry on and the person he could share all of his worries and fears with.

But, as Harry didn't seem ready for a romantic relationship with him yet, Draco would have to be happy to be the friend the brunet could lean on instead of the lover he wanted to be. However, the blond was fairly sure that as supposed soul mates Harry would soon start feeling something more than only friendship for him. And any sexual acts he would love to do with Harry would for the moment have to stay to be restricted to their Altair homework.

Speaking about homework, they really needed to find a ritual for their Ritual Magic class. While they theoretically could decide when they wanted to perform the three obligatory rituals which would make up half of their grades, their teacher had advised them to make use of magical enchanting days, like the Autumnal Equinox, as they were still beginners and could only profit from the help these magical dates provided. Thus, he and Harry were spending this Saturday afternoon with searching for a ritual they could perform on Halloween.

The reason why they decided to do their first ritual on Halloween was that for one the Autumnal Equinox had fallen on the 22th September―a Monday, at 11:56 pm this year and neither of them wanted to be up until one in the morning or later on a school day. And secondly, their teacher had also suggested that it would be better for them to wait until a bit later in the year as they still needed to learn the basics of properly preparing each other for a ritual.

Thus, they had agreed to perform their mandatory rituals on Halloween―a Friday; on the Winter Solstice―which not only fell on a Sunday but was also in the time period of their Yule holidays; and next year's Vernal Equinox―which was also on a Friday.

And while their teacher had given them the hint to use magical enchanting days for their rituals, she hadn't even given them a hint of what ritual would be advantageous for them. They would have to find one on their own, which would not only suit their Typos Thesis and bond order―both allowing them to perform nearly any ritual imaginable, but also would agree with their limitation that only Draco was allowed to draw Runes, if they were needed. So, all rituals in which both of the participants drew Runes were out of the question for them.

Even with this restriction, there still were at least one hundred different rituals they could choose from and this were only the ones listed in the books "_Rituals for magical days_" and "_Ritual Magic rituals for beginners_". Draco didn't want to think about looking through the one-thousand page thick exemplar of "_Rituals for soul mates_" which decorated one of the shelves in their living room, if they didn't find an agreeable ritual in the books they were currently skimming through.

_Why does every fifth Halloween ritual involve cutting one of the participants?_ Draco wondered as he dismissed another ritual from the Halloween section of _Rituals for magical days _he was looking through. He didn't need to ask Harry to know that the brunet didn't need any more scars as a Halloween remembrance―the lightening bolt on his forehead was enough.

Frustrated, he complained to no one in particular, "Why can't we just be in the possession of a still un-enchanted portrait? This would make things so much easier."

"What do you mean with un-enchanted portrait?" Harry asked him, not understanding what the blond was on about. He was as frustrated as Draco with how his research was progressing, therefore the distracting the blond's comment offered was very welcomed.

_Really why are about three quarters of the rituals in _Ritual Magic rituals for beginners_ designed for both persons to be able to draw Runes? _Harry questioned, even if the introduction text had explained that Runes usually made the performance of Ritual Magic a lot easier and thus advised beginners to start with rituals which included a lot of Runes.

"Sorry, I sometimes forget that you didn't grew up in the Wizarding world and don't always know things which are common knowledge to me," the blond apologized. "Anyway, you already know about the Wizarding portraits, which can not only move but also have the memories of the persons they show," Draco began his explanation.

Harry nodded in agreement. He already knew this.

"The thing is that when the portraits are painted they're not magical. Or at least at the first glance they don't look any different from a Muggle portrait. The reason for this is that while magical artists use an enchanted canvas and also colours which are mixed with a special potion, the person in the picture only comes to life after a special ritual is performed after the person's death. This way they can ensure that the portrait will have all the memories the living person had, instead of only the memories the person had at the time when the portrait was made," the blond explained.

That made Harry think about the unmoving portrait of Sirius he had found in the Blacks' Gringotts vault. _Could it be that the portrait only waited to be activated?_ Harry wondered, but not really wanting to hope in case that he would be disappointed.

Unaffected by Harry's thoughts of hope, Draco went on with his explanation. "Normally the artist who was commissioned to draw the portrait is also the one who will perform the activation ritual. Or if they aren't able to do it themselves, they engage a Ritual Magic pair to do the ritual for them after the person's death.

"So, you see that it is very difficult to get your hands on a still un-enchanted portrait as I don't think that an artist will offer us to use one of his pictures to try our hand on this ritual, even if Halloween is the perfect time to perform the Portrait Activation Ritual―the barrier between the living and the dead being the thinnest on that day and all that," the blond said wishfully. He really would have loved to perform this ritual as it was relatively easy to do and would go along quite well with their restrictions.

"Is there a way to find out if a portrait is magical but hasn't been activated yet instead of only being a Muggle made one?" Harry asked. He had to know now if there would be a chance that Sirius' portrait wasn't moving because it simply wasn't activated yet, opposed to the veil preventing it from working or it being made by a Muggle, which was unlikely considering that a pure-blood had commissioned it.

That unusual question took the blond by surprise, nevertheless he answered the other boy. "Actually, there is a relatively easy way to find out if a picture isn't activated," Draco said. "Because my mother is a born Black, who by the way are known to have an obsession with portraits, she told me all about them when I was still young. I remember that she said that before a magical portrait is activated the nameplate will be empty because engraving the name is part of the Portrait Activation Ritual. So, if you have an unmoving portrait with a still empty nameplate it probably is a magical one," the blond informed Harry.

_The nameplate of Sirius' portrait was empty,_ Harry remembered, full of hope that he maybe would be able to get back his godfather in a way. Without another word to the blond, Harry suddenly got up from his armchair and ran towards their bedroom where his trunk with the shrunken portrait was located.

"Found it," the brunet exclaimed happily as he finally got a hold of the portrait which had been buried deep in his trunk.

Just as Harry finished re-enlarging the oval portrait of his godfather, a concerned Draco entered the room. Turning around to face the blond he said, smiling, "Do you think this one will suffice?"

Draco was shocked that Harry could so easily produce something as rare as a still unactivated portrait._ But it seems like with Harry everything is possible,_ he thought with a smile on his face, falling even more for the unique brunet.

"Only you, Harry, would have an unactivated portrait of your godfather lying around in your trunk," the blond told Harry affectionately with a slight shake of his head.

"Yup, that's me," Harry answered happily, a very big smile on his face as he patted himself on the back. He couldn't wait for Halloween to come so that he could get his godfather back―even if it only would be in the form of a moving portrait.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

As they'd found a ritual sooner than Draco had expected, and because he already knew how the Portrait Activating Ritual was constructed, the blond had decided that he would make use of the rest of this sunny afternoon and join the Slytherin Quidditch team for their Saturday practice session which had already started ten minutes ago. Even if he was only the reserve Seeker and theoretically didn't need to go to the practices, he tried to at least show up twice a month to not get too rusty as you never knew when the current Seeker would get ill.

Just as the blond was about to put on his gloves, there was a knock on their door.

"Hello, Hermione," he heard Harry greet his friend.

"May I come in? I really need to look up something and I haven't been able to find the information in any books the library has," the brunette woman said.

"And what could be in our little book collection that you can't find in Hogwarts' enormous library?" the blond asked when he walked towards the door, his broom in hand.

"One of the kink colours which showed up in Ron's Lloj Potion," the Head Girl stated matter of factly.

"Then by all means, come on in and tell me later what kinks Ronald Weasley has," Draco said, inviting her in as the wards of Room Zero demanded, before he left the room to go to the Quidditch pitch.

"Thank you, Draco," Hermione said, before Harry also invited her in and they went to the living room.

Once there Harry asked her, "So, Hermione, is Ron's Typos Thesis compatible with yours?"

"Not really," she answered from her place near the bookshelves, where she was searching for an encyclopedia called _"The complete list of all colours and their meanings of the Lloj Potion"_. The book had been mentioned as the perfect reference if you needed to find a rare colour in one of the books she had found in the Altair section of Hogwarts' library.

"Because?" Harry prompted her from his place on the window seat Draco loved.

"Because Ron is, as we both have correctly guessed, a top; while his role, on the other hand, is a switch. So, as you already know I'm a dominant," Hermione said in a voice that clearly said 'Thank you so much for respecting my privacy on that matter'. After she shot a glare in Harry's direction, she continued, "Ron's and my Typos Thesis roles don't match."

"That's good to know," Harry said, searching for the Portrait Activating Ritual in _Rituals for magical days_. He stopped himself just in time from further asking, "And is Ron also into bondage?" That certainly wouldn't have gone over well, at all.

"Found it," Hermione joyfully exclaimed a minute later as she took out _The complete list of all colours and their meanings of the Lloj Potion_ from the shelf. With the thick encyclopedia in hand, she walked to the kitchen table in the right corner of the room to begin her search.

In the meantime Harry had found his page in his book and began reading the introduction about the Portrait Activating Ritual. Though, the brunet didn't come far, as soon his thoughts drifted away from the historical information written in the book in his lap to the blond boy who he saw flying on the Quidditch pitch from his position on the window seat.

Harry was surprised that after only a month, he would be able to truthfully call Draco Malfoy one of his best friends, especially after the previous six years of animosity. But a war―even if it had only been a short one―forced people to grow up. Besides, with Voldemort finally gone both of them were free to be themselves.

Harry found it amusing that Draco simply being himself also included that the blond always took a shower before he took a bath. The first time Draco had told him that he would be taking a nice relaxing bath after one of the Quidditch practices he had attended, Harry had been very surprised when he heard the shower running in the bathroom. When his Altair partner finally left the bathroom forty minutes later, the brunet―curious as he was―had asked the other boy why he had taken a shower when he said he would be taking a bath. And so, Draco had told him how he and his mother had accompanied his father to a business trip to Japan when he was five.

When the little, impressionable, blond boy had heard that it was customary in Japan to always shower before taking a bath, he had, in his five-year-old wisdom, decided that this was a very good idea._ After all who liked to soak for half an hour in dirty water? No, first cleaning oneself in the shower and then entering the bathtub so that the warm water would stay clean was how one should always take a bath,_ the five-year-old had thought. And this opinion didn't change even after he came back to Britain or grew older. Thus, Draco still always showered first before he took a bath.

Harry had found that little story very amusing. He could clearly imagine a little pouting Draco reasoning with his parents about the wisdom behind the concept and complaining that they should have told him sooner about the Japanese bathing habit.

But this wasn't the only positive thing Harry had learned about the blond in the last weeks. He found out that Draco was very insightful―if he wanted to―and that he really enjoyed Draco's sense of humour. Especially when the blond used it to help Harry relax during their Altair electives related activities.

While after a month Harry had become comfortable about he and Draco sleeping in the nude and always waking up all cuddled up―regardless if either of them sported a morning wood or not, he still needed a bit more time to get truly at ease with the whole Sexual Magic aspect of their relationship.

Nevertheless, Harry was very confident that by the end of this month he would have enough experience to not feel so much like a blushing virgin anymore, as not only Draco's jokes but also his very caring nature greatly helped Harry to get more confident and at ease with his newly acquired sex life.

Though, at first it had really surprised him that the so called Slytherin Ice Prince had such a caring side. But, now where he had the chance to get to know the blond better, he came to realise that while Draco usually wore the cold and uncaring Malfoy mask in public, the blond would do everything in his power to help the people he cared for. And Harry was very glad that he now was one of those people as he couldn't have wished for a better Altair partner to help him to get over his inexperience, even if the blond himself wasn't any more experienced than him.

However, Harry couldn't deny that he currently started to doubt that his whole behaving a bit more like boyfriends idea was really this good. While the occasionally exchanged good night and good morning kisses had certainly helped Harry to get comfortable with kissing the blond, it had blurred the lines between friends, lovers and fuck-buddies.

_One doesn't usually kiss one of his best friends, do they?_ Harry asked himself as he watched how Draco soared towards the ground, most likely having spotted the Snitch. _Even if it may be customary in France to kiss your friends in greeting, I still wouldn't kiss Ron or Hermione,_ Harry thought with a slight shudder as he imagined kissing his red-headed friend.

_But then, neither of them is my Altair partner. And it would be even more weird and uncomfortable if Draco and I had sex together for the sake of our Sexual Magic classes but never even exchange a simple kiss,_ he argued.

_Which brings me back to the whole feeling like a whore issue against the fact that kissing is what boyfriends should be doing, not good friends. Argh, this whole thing is just so fucked up,_ he cursed in his mind, letting his head thump against the stone wall behind him in frustration.

_Why can't my life for once_ not _be complicated?_ Harry asked himself as he rubbed his throbbing head._ At least, so far, we kept anything more than kissing strictly restricted to what is required for our Altair classes. Our relationship would be even more messed up if the two of us started to also have casual sex just because we both are hormonal teenagers and enjoyed the little bit of sexual interaction we had so far. _

_Though, I really would love to receive the occasional blow job from Draco's very talented month. It surely is way better than the hasty shower wanks I had in the last weeks, _the brunet thought, uncaring that his friend Hermione was also in the room and could easily see the red hint on his cheeks or the small bulge in his pants if she would look up from her big encyclopedia.

He could clearly remember how good Draco made him feel; not only with the blow jobs and hand jobs he had received for the sake of Sexual Magic homework but also how good it felt when the blond had fucked him or he Draco, the five times they had had real sex so far that's it.

Harry was just happy that no one had asked him to put a label on what exactly his and Draco's relationship was. They were good, maybe even best, friends, that Harry could say for certain. _But they also were Altair partners, so they had to be more than just friends. Right? _the brunet questioned.

And while some would say that best friends who have sex could be called lovers, Harry wouldn't call them that as neither of them was in love with the other, even if they both were quickly developing a platonic love for each other. And neither would he really call them fuck-buddies or friends with benefits as their sexual interaction was restricted to their school assignments. So, maybe he would simply go with friends who happened to also be Altair partners.

_But then, would someone wank off on images of his naked best friend? _Harry asked himself. In his mind he tried to explain his changed wanking fantasies with the argument that Draco simply was not only a very attractive bloke, but also that the blond was the only one Harry had seen naked outside of the communal shower rooms and knew how it felt liked to be sexually active with. And what was better wanking material than your own memories?

_Besides, I only started to replace the faceless bodies with Draco's after we became Altair partners, so it surely has only to do with him being my only real sex partner,_ the brunet reasoned. _Though, before Draco the faceless persons had never had white-blond hair. Usually their hair colour had been honey blond or darker,_ Harry mused.

Thinking about his own changed preference of hair colour reminded Harry that he wasn't alone in the room as Hermione was currently trying to figure out what one of the colours of Ron's Lloj Potion stood for. Looking over at his friend, he saw that she was humming to herself while studying the page in front of her. _She must have found what she had been looking for,_ he thought.

Seeing that he wouldn't get any of his own reading done with Draco still invading his thoughts, Harry got up to find out what kink Ron had. He really was very curious if Hermione's hypothesis was correct and that Ron not only hated the Altair electives because he believed that they would steal 'his' Hermione from him, but also because he couldn't accept one of his own kinks and tried to hid his embarrassment behind his aversion of everything involved with Sexual Magic.

That little hypothesis was the only reason why they had in the end decided to go through with getting the result of Ron's Lloj Potion, even if they both had agreed that Draco had made a very good point when he said that Ron wouldn't accept the outcome of the Sexual Magic potion as an indication that he and Hermione were just not meant to be.

_I wonder if her having gotten a hold of Ron's blood also means that she already got Draco's and my result of the Lloj Potion? _Harry mused as he walked over towards his friend.

Hermione was so absorbed in her own reading and thinking that she didn't notice when Harry read over her shoulder, interested what rare kink their red-headed friend possessed that Hermione hadn't found it in any of the books in the library.

_**~This very dark shade of violet is hard to discern from the black colour of the un-reacted Lloj potion. One will only notice the violet hint if the Lloj Potion is held into direct sunlight. Though, before one tries to talk themselves into seeing a hint of violet in their own black Lloj Potion because of its power in Sexual Magic, we would like to emphasise that to receive this dark violet colour is very, very rare. Only about one person/pairing in two hundred years will really have that particular shade of violet.**_

_And even if one correctly identifies this colour, one still doesn't know which of the sexual inclinations apply as the colour has more than one meaning. While in most cases only one of the connected inclinations apply to the person, it is also possible that all or only some of the inclinations may be true._

_This shade can have the following meanings:_

_-loving to be fed apples during sexual plays_

_-turned on by the partner wearing only their socks_

_-aroused by Parseltongue_

_-turned on by being restrained by snakes (most often found in combination with the above inclination)_

_-having to wear a headgear to get aroused_

_-a wide variety of sexual inclinations_

_The last inclinations is why so many people try to see the soft violet hint in their black Lloj Potion. While it is only a general statement and the person has to find out by themselves what specific sexual inclinations they like, it at least means that the person has four or more different major inclinations. The reason why it has to be at least four is that the Lloj Potion is limited to only show up to three specific major inclinations besides the preferred role and position. If the number goes over that magical three, then it will show the dark violet colour instead._

_Of course, if one has a wide variety of sexual inclinations, their Typos Thesis will strengthen most Sexual Magic practices which involve any of the inclinations.~_

Hmm, Harry thought after he finished reading the description of the colour Hermione had been searching for. _While I can imagine Ron having a fetish that involves food, I don't think that apples would be his thing__―__sausages would be more to his liking._

_Though, if Ron should actually have the Parseltongue kink instead of the apple one, it really would explain rather well why he detests Sexual Magic,_ Harry thought, knowing that Ron's family had told the red-head that kinks played a great part in Sexual Magic and thus, Harry could easily imagine Ron blaming Sexual Magic for him getting aroused by the sound of Parseltongue.

_But if I really think about it, I can't imagine Ron being turned on by someone hissing to snakes,_ Harry contemplated. _While Ron isn't afraid any longer if I speak Parseltongue, it still freaks him out as he can't get over the prejudice that Parseltongue is something that only dark wizards possess._

_Really, the second and fourth meaning aside, I would connect these kinks more with Draco than with Ron, with him being a Slytherin and his love for apples,_ Harry thought as the blond once again found his way into his thoughts.

"Are you sure that Ron's potion showed a dark shade of violet?" Harry asked Hermione. Maybe his friend had made a mistake―as unlikely as it was for her to do such a thing.

"Eek, Harry!" Hermione shrieked out, nearly falling out of her chair. "Don't startle me like this."

After a moment of thinking, Hermione finally admitted with a small nod of her head, "Ron's Lloj Potion wasn't the one which had dark violet stripes."

"But...?" Harry prompted, having a feeling that his friend was withholding something from him.

"But..." she began gingerly, "yours and Draco's did."

_Oh, so she really had been able to get a hold of our blood without us noticing a thing, _Harry thought, nodding to himself. _Wait, does this mean that the description of the kinks applies to me and Draco?_ he belatedly realised.

"Draco and me?" the brunet asked unbelievingly.

"Ehm...yes," Hermione stammered out in answer. "Considering that the two of you got assigned to Room Zero, I would guess that the last meaning of the colour applies to you. Though as you are a Parselmouth it could also be possible that either of you has a Parseltongue fetish, especially because the book says that one, more than one, or even all of the meanings can apply to the persons. Not that I believe that either of you has a sock or headgear kink," she babbled out due to her nervousness as she had no idea how Harry felt about it all.

_Good to know that Hermione doesn't dismiss the being tied up by snakes kink,_ Harry thought sarcastically. Over the years he had learned to handle those unexpected situations with a pinch of sarcastic humour as it was better than lashing out.

"And you're sure that you didn't make a mistake? I mean even our professor didn't say that mine and Draco's potions were anything but black," Harry had to ask her as he couldn't believe that Draco and he were one of the once in two hundred years people who got that colour.

"Yes, I'm sure. I got both of your blood during Quidditch practices and as both times it was rather sunny outside, I noticed that neither of your potions had coloured dots on a black background, but instead the dots were on a black and dark violet striped one," she informed him about her discovery, confirming Harry and Draco's assumption that she would do something during the Quidditch practices.

"I, of course, searched in the library for the meaning of your colour, but I only found one of Ron's which hadn't been in our textbook. So, here I am," she told Harry with a sigh. She was glad to have finally gotten it off of her chest.

Trying to get some control back, Harry told Hermione, "Wait here, yeah," before he left the living room to grab their own bottles of the reacted Lloj Potion he and Draco had kept in their bedroom.

When he re-entered the living room Harry walked straight over to the window and held his bottle into the direct afternoon sun. And to Harry's surprise, he for the first time noticed that there really were dark violet stripes between the dots; Hermione had been right.

To make sure that it wasn't only his potion, he now held Draco's into the sun and indeed, just as Hermione had told him, its background too wasn't entirely black but rather a mix of black and dark violet.

Turning around to his friend, he said, "You're right. They do have violet stripes."

"Of course I am," she answered kindly from where she had settled down on the sofa.

Setting down the two vials on the coffee table, Harry joined his friend on the couch. The whole discovery that he and Draco after all did have kinks―maybe even enough that not every single one would show up in the Lloj Potion―had tired him out.

"So, if you only came here to look up the meaning of my and Draco's colour, you must already know what kinks Ron has," Harry said, trying to change the subject of their talk from him to Ron as he needed some time to come to terms with the new development.

Hermione, knowing Harry well enough to know that he didn't want to talk any more about him and his newly discovered kink―whatever form it may have―went along with the change of topic.

"Besides the light brown and dark green stripes for Ron's role and position, his potion also had apple green and pale red-violet stripes. As you know, the apple green colour means that one has a general food fetish, a not so surprising kink considering his love for food," she told her friend.

"Yep," Harry said with a small chuckle. He had already suspected as much.

"I also searched for the meaning of the pale red-violet colour but I couldn't find it in our textbook as it only lists the most common colours. So, I went to the library and after two hours of looking through some rather small encyclopedias I finally found the right colour," she informed him.

Glancing over his shoulder towards the kitchen table where the very thick copy of _The complete list of all colours and their meanings of the Lloj Potion _lied, Harry had the suspicion that each of those small encyclopedias had been at least two hundred pages thick.

Looking back at his friend he prompted, "Don't keep me on tenterhooks, what is this unusual kink Ron has?"

"I wouldn't call it unusual as it is a simple foot fetish," Hermione admitted.

"Oh, that's good. A food and a foot kink," Harry said, laughing about his friend's wordplay kinks.

Soon, his laughter also had infected Hermione and they were both laughing about it.

"Oh, I can't wait until Draco hears about it," the brunet said between fits of laughter.

"Hear what?" came the blond's voice from the doorway, stopping both of their laughters.

"Hear what Ron's kinks are," Hermione informed him as she got up from the couch. Over the last weeks she had gotten to know Draco well enough that she trusted him to not use the information about Ron's kinks against the red-head.

"See you two at dinner," she said in goodbye, pointedly looking from Harry to the potion vials on the coffee table and then towards the still opened book on the kitchen table, telling her friend with her eyes that he should also inform the blond about the dark violet stripes in their Lloj Potions.

"Bye, Hermione," Harry answered her, while Draco moved out of the doorway allowing her to leave the room, saying, "Till later."

"So, what funny fetish does Ronald Weasley have?" the blond asked after he heard Hermione closing the door after her.

"Ron apparently has a food and a foot kink," the brunet answered, not able to stop himself from chuckling.

"Really, Weasley has a foot fetish?" the blond asked Harry. He would never have guessed the red-head to be turned on by someone's feet.

"Yeah, he has," Harry confirmed.

After a pause where both were lost in their own thoughts, Harry finally broke the comfortable silence between them. "There's more I've to tell you," he admitted.

"I'm listening," Draco said, becoming all serious.

"Hermione also got a hold of our blood and thus knows our Typos Thesis," the brunet informed Draco.

"I guessed as much. After all, a month should have been more than enough time for her to figure out a way to get our blood," Draco told him; he wasn't bothered at all by the fact that Hermione, and probably Blaise too, knew about him being a mainly dominant and top.

"Ehm, yeah. But the thing is that she noticed something that we overlooked," Harry nervously told the blond. He didn't know how Draco would react to the news that apparently both of their Lloj Potions sported a rather rare kink colour which had more than one meaning, and not every single one of them was nice.

"You see, the backgrounds of our potions actually aren't black but rather a mix of black and dark violet stripes," Harry finally admitted, holding up one of the potion bottles from the coffee table to hold it against the direct sunlight.

"And what does the dark violet mean?" Draco asked after he saw for himself that Harry was right.

Not wanting to explain the meaning to his Altair partner, Harry said, "You can read it for yourself. The book is still opened on the page of the colour," he told Draco while pointing with his head towards the kitchen table.

Intrigued why Harry wouldn't just tell him what it meant, he walked towards the table and read the short description, while Harry watch him with nervous eyes.

When he finally finished reading, the blond joked, "With how nervous you were, I feared that it meant that we had a vomiting fetish or something just as disgusting. Though, I'm still not sure if you may have Autassassinophilia."

While he didn't know if Harry shared his Parseltongue kink, Draco had already come to accept his fetish for the snake language. So, he wasn't at all bothered by the meaning of the colour. And even if in Harry's case another of the possible meanings of the colour applied, he thought that he knew his Altair partner well enough to know that it could only be the last meaning and he doubted that Harry had any fetish he wouldn't enjoy as he wouldn't be surprised if in his case the last option was also true.

"Auta... what?" the brunet asked, not knowing what the blond was talking about now.

"Autassassinophilia, being sexually aroused by the risk of being killed. Considering how often you get into near death situations, on could easily assume that you get off on it," he explained the medical term to Harry.

While a year back this comment would have resulted in both of them throwing hexes at each other until at least one of them landed in the hospital wing, Harry now recognised Draco's joking voice and could laugh together with his former school rival about it, forgetting all about his previous nervousness at the discovery of the dark violet strip had brought.

"I'm surprised that Skeeter hadn't thought about it. She surely would love to write such an article," Harry said between laughs. "It would have fit together perfectly with the Ministry's 'Harry Potter is insane' campagne from fifth year," he joked. He was just relieved that Draco was so comfortable about their newly revealed kink, whichever ones they may have.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Matrimonio: **Spanish for marriage according to Google translator.

**Ron's kinks:** Part of the credit for the food fetish goes to my beta Makoto and picabone99, one of my reviewers. (If I happend to forget to give someone else credit for the idea, just leave a message.)

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN2:** Thank you all for following Altair for a year. I hope that you like this chapter and will stay with the story for another year or two before I can mark this story as completed.

While you all know that Draco definitely has a Parseltongue kink, I'll let your fantasy decide if any of the other inclinations may also apply to the boys or what fetishes they have.

And who of you still remembered about Sirius portrait? I already said before that it would make an important re-appearance. :)

**Next:** Propably the Halloween ritual, so eagerly await Sirius reappearence and what he has to say about his own time as an Altair student. It will be very insightful. ;)


	27. Ch 26 The Portrait Activation Ritual

**Disclaimer:** see prologue

**Guide: **"Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**__, "Parseltongue_"

**Warning:** sexual themes, especially submissive behaviour and cleaning (intimate shaving, enema usage)

**Beta: **Ophelias_Suicide, Platinum

**AN: **Instead of the 200th review Altair got its 400th story alert for the one year anniversary. So, thank you all for your continued interest in my first story and maybe we can break the 200 review mark with this chapter? :)

Also a big thank you to **onehelluvabutler** for helping me out with the Latin translations. And **Sevfan** for proofreading this chapter.

And I'm really, really sorry for the long delay (and that I haven't updated a chapter in April), but real life went from merely busy to utterly horrible, before it was back to totally busy in the last weeks.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 26 – The Portrait Activation Ritual-~-~-**

**Friday, 31th October 1997**

Harry had just announced to his Quidditch team that he wouldn't be attending Saturday morning's Quidditch practice and that the rest of the team was free to skip too, when Ginny noticed that Harry was having nothing but tea for breakfast.

"Are you feeling unwell, Harry?" Ginny asked her Quidditch captain and friend, worried about his health as Harry hadn't given his team a reason to why he wouldn't attend tomorrow's practice.

"No, I'm just not hungry this morning," he answered. Harry didn't know how else he should explain to his underage friend that he wasn't eating breakfast because the Portrait Activation Ritual demanded that both participants fasted for a twenty-six hour period before the ritual was carried out.

He had been lucky enough that the ritual itself would only take about two hours to prepare and thus their fasting period had only started at eight yesterday evening. So, Harry at least had been able to eat dinner last night.

Though the brunet didn't mind not eating for a whole day as much as Draco did as―thanks to the Dursleys―it wouldn't be the first time he fasted. The blond, on the other hand, had complained that without some sugar he wouldn't be able to properly concentrate on his classes, to which Harry had said that Draco should just drink a lot of juice or soda as both had lots of sugar in them and wouldn't hurt their fasting.

"Are you sure, mate?" Ron asked. It was very unusual for the brunet to skip a meal and his red-headed friend thought that if one doesn't eat that they have to be ill. After all, who could say no to Hogwarts' delicious food? "You could at least eat a bit of toast," Ron encouraged Harry to have something to eat.

"I'm fine, Ron. If I get hungry, I can always grab something from the kitchen on my way to Potions," Harry answered, deciding that he should better avoid the Great Hall for the rest of the day, lest he got any more unwanted questions on his fasting, especially since it would be very suspicious if he didn't eat anything at all during tonight's special Halloween dinner.

And while he could theoretically tell Ron and the other seventh years that he was fasting because of a Sexual Magic assignment, he had promised Ron that they wouldn't talk about anything Sexual Magic related if it could be avoided.

_Maybe I should feign an illness after all? Some potion fume I didn't tolerate? _Harry wondered, only now realising that it would be hard to avoid questions from his friends without a pretext at hand.

_But at least Ron finally accepted that Sexual Magic isn't as bad as he first had believed it to be,_ Harry thought, remembering the talk he had with his friend a week ago after one of their Quidditch practices. There, Ron had again apologised to Harry for his previous behaviour and the brunet had just been glad that his first friend finally handled the situation like an adult.

The main reason for Ron's change of heart was that the red-head had finally asked his sister about her and Harry's breakup and heard from her own lips that she saw Harry as another brother now and thus wasn't heartbroken about not being together with Harry any longer. It also helped a lot that Ron had seen with his own eyes how happy Ginny was with her new boyfriend Samuel Callwo, a Ravenclaw from her own year.

And now that he finally saw that Harry hadn't broken his baby sister's heart because of his wish to study Sexual Potions, Ron could finally understand why Harry wanted to try and brew the Shërim Mendjen. He was even ecstatic about it, though he would prefer it if Harry wouldn't want to try brewing it with Malfoy of all people and, Merlin forbid, didn't ever want to hear the details of the brewing recipe.

Still, Ron could finally admit that even Sexual Magic had some good points. And while he was not completely over his own breakup with Hermione, his talk with Ginny had planted a seed of doubt in his mind that maybe―_just maybe_―he too saw Hermione more like a sister than a lover. But as both a brother and an admirer wouldn't want his girl/sister to have sex with another boy, he still held on to his belief that his love for Hermione wasn't only platonic in nature.

However, Ron was just glad that the Golden Trio was back together and that as long as the Altair electives or anything else related to Sexual Magic, like their rooming arrangements, wasn't mentioned it felt just like the good old times where everything was still okay between the three friends.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

It was now shortly before nine in the evening and Harry was beyond nervous but also very exited about the impending ritual he would be performing. _What if we fuck up and destroy any chances of Sirius' portrait to ever be activated?_ he worried.

"Calm down, Harry," Draco said when he saw the brunet tousle his hair for the umpteenth time tonight. "Everything will go smoothly."

"But what if we mess it up?" Harry asked.

"And what is there to mess up?" the blond asked rhetorically. "We already practised every single cleansing step the ritual has and there isn't really anything more than cleaning. Even our teacher said that it is the perfect ritual for beginners and that we shouldn't have any problems with it," Draco told Harry.

When the brunet still seemed nervous, Draco said, "The only thing you can worry about is that your godfather may get an eyeful if he opens his eyes too quickly after his portrait is activated," Draco tried to joke to lighten Harry's mood.

Unfortunately, it hadn't the desired effect as Harry became embarrassed at the thought of Sirius seeing him having sex with Draco.

"Seriously, the hardest part will be to swallow all of this tea," the blond hastily said when he noticed that his previous words hadn't helped to relax Harry as intended.

"Is this tea really this horrible?" Harry asked, curious, his previous embarrassment and nervousness forgotten for the moment.

"It has an unusual taste. But it isn't so bad that you can't drink it," the blond answered, dutifully taking another sip of his tea. After he swallowed it down, he continued, "I think that it's either the dandelion or the milk thistle which doesn't taste too good."

"It must be the milk thistle," the brunet answered, finally relaxing into the sofa's cushions. "During our herbal tea lesson I already tasted a tea which had dandelion as an ingredient and it tasted fine to me," Harry informed the blond.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Both boys had been rather surprised about the topic of their third Ritual Magic class. After their previous lesson, where Professor Immaculé had shown them different kinds of cleaning utilities, like enemas and different washcloths, they expected that they would practise how to use one of them in the follow-up lesson. But, Professor Immaculé had surprised them when she had held a kind of tea party during their third lesson.

She said that not only the external cleaning was important but also the internal cleaning. And as herbs were used for both the internal and external purification this would be where they would start their first real lesson on cleansing as the other day she had only shown them the different utensils because she had needed to improvise due to their surprisingly already establish strong bond.

Thus, they spent forty-five minutes getting introduced to herbs and their cleansing abilities and whether they were used for internal or external cleaning during their third Ritual Magic class. And to not let the lesson get too theoretical, she let them mix two different herbal teas each. Though, she didn't just let them mix their teas for the sake of tasting them but for them to have a base for their next homework assignment: fifteen inches on the properties of the herbs they used and how they worked together.

They both had been glad at the end of the lesson that they hadn't used more than three herbs in each of their teas as Professor Immaculé only informed them about their assignment when the bell rang.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Ten minutes after nine o'clock found Draco emptying the last cup of his cleansing tea which consisted of red clover, peppermint, ginger, dandelion and the milk thistle whose taste the blond disliked.

"I'll go and get ready now," Draco informed Harry as he got up from the sofa to take a shower and to get dressed in the clothes for the ritual.

Harry only nodded, not even bothering to look up from the page he was reading with great interest.

After their short talk about the tea they both had to drink, the brunet had tried to distract himself with reading Draco's copy of _Seeker Weekly_ and to the blond's relief the article about the friendly match between Argentina and Spain and the one between Bulgaria and Scotland had been able to catch Harry's attention enough for the brunet to stay occupied and distracted for the next thirty minutes.

Just as Harry was about to finish reading the last paragraph about the match between Bulgaria and Scotland, Draco re-entered the living room.

"The bath is all yours now," the blond said as he walked over towards their kitchen area to prepare Harry's pot of cleansing tea.

"Hmm," Harry hummed in acknowledgement, eager to finish the article. He was enthralled by the **Transylvanian Tackle* **Krum had used against the Scottish Seeker shortly before catching the Snitch himself.

When he was finally finished, he got up from the sofa and hurried to the bathroom without looking into Draco's direction once, fearing that he would get nervous again when he saw Draco in his clothes for the ritual.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

It was two minutes after ten in the evening now and Harry was staring at his image in the bathroom mirror. He was aware that it was time for them to begin the Portrait Activation Ritual but still, the brunet hesitated to leave the safety the bathroom provided. Harry knew that as soon as he would enter their bedroom the ritual would begin and they wouldn't be able to turn back and start again if anything went wrong.

Self-consciously Harry twiddled with the belt of the dark grey bathrobe he was wearing, mentally going through all the steps of the ritual one last time. While they had already tried out every different cleaning process the ritual involved, they had always done it as equals and most often than not simultaneously. But, the Portrait Activation Ritual demanded that one of them would have to take on the role of the submissive medium while the other would be the dominant conductor.

As Harry was the main submissive and the conductor was the one to draw the Runes, their roles were inarguably predetermined. However, it wasn't the fact that it would be the first time where the submissive-dominant aspect would be clearly noticeable to them, but the embarrassment of the enema procedure he would have to go through which made Harry hesitate.

But the wish to finally be rejoined with his godfather was stronger than the fear of a short-lived embarrassment. And so, with a final look into his mirror image and a whispered "For Sirius", Harry left the bathroom at seven after ten, hoping that the anal cleaning charm Draco had cast on his request before the start of their fasting period would be enough to prevent any unwanted faeces to make an appearance when the water would leave his gut.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

When Harry finally entered the bedroom, he was captivated by the sight in front of him. While he, of course, had known that Draco would be wearing his black leather trousers for the ritual, he hadn't imagined that the sight of the blond wearing nothing but the ass hugging leather trousers would be such a turn on.

Hell, he had seen the blond naked often enough in the last two months to know how attractive he was. But still, Harry couldn't deny that the skin tight leather made Draco's ass and legs look even more hot than usual. And it seemed like his body agreed with the brunet as his cock was halfway on its way to full arousal.

Embarrassed about his body's reaction, Harry averted his eyes from the blond's ass and forced himself to look at the ground instead. He was glad that Draco had been standing with his back to him when he presented Harry with the perfect view of his ass. This way he hadn't notice how Harry's cheeks had turned red and how his cock had become erect as the bathrobe the brunet wore didn't help him to conceal his aroused state.

Getting his mind out of the gutter and his erection under control, Harry took a deep breath and began with the first part of the Portrait Activation Ritual, which was for him to slowly walk with lowered eyes towards the pillow which lay on the floor beside Draco's side of the bed.

By the time Harry reached the pillow and was about to kneel down on it, Draco had finished preparing everything he would need for the ritual and turned away from his bedside table to face Harry.

Following the protocol of the ritual, the brunet waited until Draco was standing directly in front of him before he would say the words which would mark the start of the cleaning ritual the Portrait Activation Ritual included.

Lifting his eyes from the blond's bare feet, Harry, for the first time in an hour, met Draco's eyes and immediately turned a bright shade of red before saying the cleaning ritual starting phrase, "**Placere meum mundatis***."

Draco accepted Harry's plea of cleansing with a caressing pat to the brunet's head. The blond was happy to see that this gesture brightened the blush on Harry's face as it had brought the brunet nearly face to face with Draco's crotch.

Over the last weeks Draco had gotten a bit impatient about their still non-existent romantic relationship. So, he was relieved to see that Harry found him attractive even when they wouldn't be doing anything sexual in the next half hour or so.

He actually had been a bit disappointed earlier when Harry hadn't looked at him when he had been boiling the tea water. After all, while it was Draco's choice if he wanted to wear a shirt in addition to the pants during the ritual, he had hoped that with him wearing only the leather trousers Harry would give at least a small reaction that he liked what he saw.

Sitting down on the bed so that he could easily reach the teapot on the bedside table while still being able to face Harry, who was kneeling beside the bed, Draco poured the first cup of tea for the internal cleansing.

Holding up the cup of the warm cleansing tea to Harry's lips, Draco couldn't help but to admit that he liked the sight in front of him. Seeing Harry kneeling before his feet, his hands clasped behind his back and simply screaming submissive was very arousing to him.

The brunet, on the other hand, couldn't help but to agree with Draco that the cleansing tea wasn't the best tasting one he had ever had as he slowly drained the first cup.

Taking the now empty cup from the brunet, Draco refilled it with more tea before holding it out to Harry once more.

This procedure was repeated until the whole teapot was empty fifteen minutes later. Then Draco put the cup down on the bedside table and walked to the end of the bed. There he had already spread out a spare blanket and another pillow for Harry to lie on during his impending enema.

"Come here," he called out for Harry to join him.

Just as the rules of the ritual demanded, Harry didn't say a word as he stood up from his kneeling position and walked over to the blond. As they both had read the instruction at least three times, Draco didn't need to further ask Harry to lie down on his right side on the blanket so that he could begin with the enema as the brunet positioned himself.

After lifting Harry's bathrobe, whose dark grey colour symbolised the brunet's unclean state, Draco picked up the head of the enema tube and put a generous amount of lube on it before he inserted it slowly into Harry's anus. Both of them were glad that they had already performed an enema on themselves and thus knew how to do it without hurting the other.

Opening the clip to let the water slowly flow into the brunet's bowel from the bag he had fastened on the footboard's ornament of their bed, Draco lowered the bathrobe again so that Harry wouldn't get cold during the fifteen minutes it would take for the bag to empty.

"I'll check on you in five minutes or so," Draco told Harry with a caress to the other boy's left shoulder before he went into their special Altair room to start drawing the Rune circle they would need later. Harry nodded his understanding and watched how the fluid slowly drained from the transparent enema bag.

When the blond re-entered the bedroom a bit more than half of the water was already inside Harry. And while Draco would have preferred it if he could stay until the whole water bag was empty, he was still far from finished with the Rune circle. Thus, he had no other choice but to leave the brunet once more on his own after Harry reassured him with a nod him that he was still alright.

When Draco entered the bedroom once again five minutes later the enema bag was empty, while he still had only finished drawing about two-thirds of the Runes. But then, the blond had purposefully taken his time with the drawing as he knew how important this ritual was to Harry and that the brunet would feel more at ease if he wasn't being stared at while he had an enema. Besides, he still had about ten minutes left to finish the circle while the water would do its work.

So before he left for the final time, the blond uncovered Harry's ass once more to slowly take out the enema tube and replaced it with a short but wide plug which would help the brunet to keep the water inside his bowel; especially when they would have to move to the bathroom for the next cleaning step.

Harry was very happy when Draco finally came back and told him that it was time to move to the bathroom. The reason why Harry was happy wasn't that all the water in his bowel was irritating him as that problem had been easily solved with rubbing slow circles on his stomach, but instead Harry desperately needed to use the loo to relieve his bladder as all the tea he had drunk nearly an hour ago was making itself known.

"Come," Draco demanded, still acting in the dominant-submissive behaviour which was a major part of the Portrait Activation Ritual.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

When they finally reached the bathroom, Harry was overcome by embarrassment. While some would say that Harry should be happy that Draco had decided against insisting that Harry crawls like a dog after him to the bathroom, Harry couldn't appreciate it as he was too troubled by the thought of the blond watching him empty his bowel in a moment.

In his nervousness, the brunet didn't even remember that not only had Draco's cock already been up his ass, but more importantly that his partner had cast the anal cleaning charm on him and that he hadn't eaten anything since then, thus nothing more than water should come out of his body. But Draco wouldn't be Draco if he hadn't already thought of a way to make Harry as comfortable as possible.

So, in retrospect, Harry shouldn't have been surprised when after the blond took out the plug, which had helped Harry to keep the water inside his body during their walk to the bathroom, and commanded Harry to relieve himself on the toilet which was located right next to their spacious bathtub, while Draco kindly turned around and moved to the other end of their big bathtub to draw the bath for the follow-up step of the ritual to give the brunet as much privacy as he could.

In that moment Harry could have kissed the blond and smacked his own head against the wall at the same time. Of course, his sweet, caring, brilliant and utterly loveable Draco would once more find a way to make him as comfortable as possible without endangering the success of the ritual. But as both of the above mentioned actions would most likely lead to the failure of the Portrait Activation Ritual, Harry opted to instead simply sit down on the toilet as instructed and grant his bladder, which was moments away from bursting, the sought out relief it needed.

Though, even if Draco was looking away from Harry, it didn't stop the brunet's face from resembling a tomato with how red Harry's face was. But still, he couldn't help but wonder as the pressure in his nether regions lessened if maybe Draco had taken so long with drawing the Runes so that the blond wouldn't have to be forced to oversee how the liquid had slowly flown into Harry's body.

_It surely seems like something Draco would do_, Harry though as the last of the enema's water was leaving his body, hidden from view by the porcelain of the toilet.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

When Draco heard Harry flushing the toilet in addition to the sound of water filling up the bathtub besides him, Draco thought that it would be safe to turn around and face Harry again.

"Come here," the blond ordered, still following the dominant-submissive play. And Harry did as instructed and got up from the toilet and walked the five steps from his end of the bathtub to the other one where the taps and Draco were located.

When Harry was standing before the blond, who was still sitting on the edge of the bathtub, Draco reached out with his hands and slowly opened the knot which kept the grey bathrobe closed. And time seemed to move even slower when Draco got up from his seated position to take off the bathrobe completely, stripping the piece of clothing over the left and then the right shoulder before the bathrobe fell in a heap to the tile floor, exposing Harry's naked body to Draco's hungry eyes.

They both had seen each other naked more than once in the last two months, but this time somehow felt different. Maybe it was because of the ritual they were performing. Maybe it was because they did know that Harry would be the only one who would be naked during the next half an hour. Or maybe it simply was special because it was the first time where one was undressing the other instead of the charmed bed doing the deed for them.

The magical moment was broken when the sponge, which Draco had placed on the edge of the tub, lost its fight against gravity and fell down on the blond's left foot, successfully breaking the moment and reminding Draco that Harry wasn't standing in front of him in all of his naked glory without a reason.

Getting his mind back on track, Draco shut off the taps before the tub could overflow. Invitingly, he held out his right hand for Harry to take and then helped the brunet to step into the water-filled tub. With his back facing Draco, Harry let out a sigh of relaxation when the warm water surrounded him.

Ignoring the special-moment-breaking-sponge for now, Draco poured a respectable amount of the special hair shampoo they'd ordered three weeks ago onto his left hand before he began to wash—or to be more accurate -massage Harry's hair. When he was satisfied with the result, he picked up a small bowl, filled it with water and carefully emptied its contents over Harry's head until no soap was left in the black curls.

With Harry's hair now freshly washed, it was time for Draco to clean the rest of his partner's body. He picked up the sponge and put some shower gel on it. And while Draco in general had nothing against roses, he couldn't say that he liked that the ritual approved shower gel smelled very girly with its dominant rose odour. But, as this couldn't be helped, the blond began to wash Harry's body, beginning with the brunet's arms.

Methodically Draco worked his way down Harry's body to his back, ordering the brunet to stand up so that he could continue to wash the round and firm ass, as well as the brunet's slender legs.

Harry for his part was very glad that this cleansing ritual did require the use of a sponge for the washing. He didn't know what he would have done if Draco would be washing him with his bare hands instead, when even with only the sponge touching his skin he needed to occasionally think about Snape and Filch snogging to keep his errection under control.

Draco, on the other hand, had to suppress a self-satisfied smirk when he noticed that the brunet's cock wasn't entirely lax after it had been time for Harry to face Draco so that the blond could wash the front of Harry's body.

Keeping his satisfaction to himself, Draco simply put some more shower gel onto the sponge and washed Harry's feet, one after the other, before he skipped the legs he had already attended to and went right for the crown jewels, aka Harry's balls and cock.

Glancing at Harry's face, the blond saw that he had his eyes closed and seemed to be concentrating on a mantra of sorts. Suppressing the urge to tease Harry until the other boy would be fully aroused―something as important as activating the portrait of Harry's beloved godfather wasn't to be taken lightly after all―Draco quickly, but still thoroughly, lathered up Harry's private parts before he moved on to the brunet's stomach and chest to complete the washing.

After Harry dived under the water to get off all the foam, Draco helped him out of the tub and then dried his Altair partner with a towel before he dressed Harry in a white **yukata***, which represented Harry's now clean state and that only reached up to his knees.

Following the rules of the cleansing ritual, Draco said "**Nunc teum mundus es***" to officially end the cleaning.

Together the left their bathroom, walked through their bedroom and then entered their special Altair room. Harry examined Draco's work, his eyes taking in the white chalk Rune circle in the middle of the room, which was only broken by five still unlit candles. Inside the circle lay not only Sirius' portrait but also three small bowls―one empty, one filled with lube and the other filled with a special black paint―as well as a razor, a paint brush, some matches and five different pillows, which built a row from one side of the circle to the other side where Sirius' portrait lay.

Following the ritual's instructions, Harry stepped into the circle on Draco's request and lay down on the two pillows farthest away from the portrait while Draco walked around the Rune circle to light the five candles with the matches as no magic was allowed during the whole ritual. When his head was comfortably lying on one pillow and the second one was rising up his hips, Harry opened his yukata so that his body would be exposed.

After all the candles were lit, Draco sat down on the third pillow in the row, which was situated between Harry's now widely spread open legs. The blond couldn't help but think that Harry looked truly devourable with the opened yukata and the wet and tousled hair, and the legs wantonly spread open. But, as they had a portrait to activate Draco forced himself to get his mind back to the tasks at hand.

Picking up the razor, Draco started to shave Harry's thick pubic hair, beginning shortly under the brunet's navel and following the happy trail all the way down to the base of Harry's cock, collecting the dark locks in the previously empty bowl.

Both of them were glad that about two weeks ago they had already practised different forms of shaving as a part of their Ritual Magic course as both of them didn't really have any practice with the Muggle way of shaving and neither wanted to accidentally cut the other when one of their rituals or potions required it.

Deeming that he had gathered enough pubic hair for the ritual, Draco laid down the razor to exchange the bowl of Harry's hair with the bowl containing the lube. Dipping his index and middle finger in the translucent liquid, he covered the area of Harry's puckered hole with lube before he gingerly inserted his index finger into Harry's body. Scooping up another load of lube, the blond carefully lubricated and stretched his partner.

Draco was happy to see that, unlike during the cleansing part, Harry was now comfortable enough to look Draco in the eyes while he scissored his fingers inside the brunet's tight ass. And somehow they were once again drawn into a spell, exchanging small smiles and not seeing anything else but each other. This time it wasn't a falling sponge but Harry's hand bumping against the pubic hair bowl which broke their little bubble.

Coming back to reality, both boys looked at the bowl, relief washing through them when they saw that Harry hadn't accidentally knocked it over. As Harry wouldn't get any more prepared as he already was, Draco extracted his fingers.

As another gesture of Harry being submissive to Draco during this ritual, the blond held his lube-covered fingers out to Harry to lick them clean. And while Harry was glad that this lube didn't taste as horrible as the sandalwood oil he had consumed while they brewed the Lloj Potion, the translucent lube was still miles away from tasting as good as his own raspberry lube. Though, this didn't stop Harry from licking and sucking the fingers longer than necessary to tease the blond.

When Harry finally released Draco's fingers, the blond covered Harry's body once again with the yukata and stood up. Walking with the bowl of pubic hair towards the portrait, Draco sat down on the pillow right in front of the portrait, lit another match and burned Harry's pubic hair. As Draco was mixing the ashes with the black paint, Harry sat down on the pillow behind the blond and moved his arms around Draco's waist, his fingers searching for the ends of the strings which functioned as the fly of the blond's trousers, while he rested his head against Draco's right shoulder.

Harry couldn't deny that he found it very thrilling to open up the strings of Draco's leather trousers, coming closer to his aim of freeing the blond's cock. Shortly he wondered if it was a bit like Draco had felt when he had stripped him of the grey bathrobe.

By the time Harry was finally able to hold the other's cock in his hands, Draco had already written _**~Siri~**_ in his elegant script on the now not so empty nameplate.

As Harry was slowly, but purposefully, stroking the blond's cock towards full arousal, it crossed his mind that that Draco's handwriting was by far more readable than his own. This was followed by the thought that this was a good enough reason to be happy that he was acting as the submissive in this ritual, even if the enema and following washing had embarrassed him.

About two minutes later, the nameplate of the portrait now finally announced that the displayed person was none other than one _**~Sirius Black~**_. Harry was proud of himself that he had been able to get Draco to full arousal in such a short time, though he wouldn't deny that it greatly helped that the paint brush the blond had used was so thin that Draco had had to dip the brush into the black paint about six time to draw one letter and thus, he had needed three minutes to write the whole name instead of the one minute it would have taken with a quill.

Both boys took a quick glance at the clock on the wall, which Draco had noticed today for the first time when he had carried the bowls into the room, wondering if their special Altair room worked a bit like the Room of Requirement. When they saw that it was already seven minutes before midnight, Draco laid down the used brush while Harry released the blond from his arms so that they could start with the final step of the ritual.

Getting up from his pillow, Draco walked around Harry so that he could sit on the middle pillow instead of the one right in front of the portrait. _It's a good thing that these trousers are so tight, or otherwise they'd have pooled down around my ankles when I walked, _the blond thought as he sat down on his new pillow and reached out with his arms to put the brunet on his lap.

Moving the yukata out of the way, he positioned his still hard cock at Harry's entrance and with Harry's assistance slowly entered the other boy's well-lubricated channel. Even if it was already four minutes before midnight, Draco still gave Harry a minute to adjust to the intrusion.

Harry gave him a small nod and they started moving together, Harry meeting the Draco's thrusts as he himself moved up and down in the blond's lap. Feeling that Harry was close to orgasm, Draco moved one hand away from Harry's hips to put it on the brunet's cock to further stimulate him. Both of them were biting their lips now as they both were rather vocal during sex. However, the ritual didn't allow them to speak or moan during it, except to call out the name of the person whose portrait they were activating during their orgasms.

So, when both boys finally came, they had a hard time to remember that they were supposed to say "Sirius Black". But luckily, they remembered to call out the name of Harry's godfather while they both were still orgasming, though both found it very, very weird to say Sirius' name while they were coming instead of each other's name. At least the portrait had been lying on the ground, making the boys nearly forget that it existed. If the portrait had been upright instead, it probably would have made them feel like Sirius had been watching them having sex.

"A dungeon?" said the disbelieving voice of Sirius Black from the floor of the special Altair room at three minutes after midnight. "And here I thought they would give me a happier welcome. After all, it isn't every day that one comes back from the dead," he complained.

"Sirius," Harry happily exclaimed when he finally came out of his post-orgasm stupor and heard the familiar voice of his godfather saying "from the dead", tears of joy running down his face as he awkwardly crawled out of the blond's lap, and over towards the portrait lying on the ground ten feet away from him, not caring that his legs, stomach and yukata were covered with his sperm or that the yukata was partly opened. All he cared about at that moment was to finally have his godfather back in his life.

And Draco couldn't help but realise at the sight of the excited, ecstatic, crying and more than happy brunet that he was now officially and irrevocably in love with Harry James Potter and not simply falling for the hero of the wizarding world anymore.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Transylvanian Tackle:** "A fake punch to the nose to confuse the opponent (as long as contact is not made, it is not illegal)", taken from Harry Potter Wiki

**Placere meum mundatis:** Latin for "Please clean me", translated by onehelluvabutler

**Yukata:** An unlined summer kimono.

**Nunc teum mundus es:** Latin for "You're clean now", translated by onehelluvabutler

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN2: **I hope you like this chapter and that the description of the ritual didn't sound too much like an instruction manual. By the way, all the herbs used in their tea are said to have a good influence on your health.

**Next: **"Of Dogs and Bats" aka the Marauders' Altair experience.


	28. Chapter 27 Of cats and dogs and bats

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes, lots of swearing and hopefully some good laughs which will steal your breath

**Beta: Platinum, VictorianMuse**

**AN: **This chapter is dedicated to **Shizu66. **Without the discussions I had with her, I probably wouldn't have written this chapter about the Marauders' Altair experience.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 27 – Of cats and dogs and bats-~-~-**

**Saturday, 1st November 1997, shortly after midnight**

"Oh, Sirius, I'm so happy to have you back," Harry exclaimed, leaning over the portrait of his godfather, tears still freely flowing from his eyes. "I was so devastated after you fell through that damned veil," he sobbed.

"It's okay, Harry. I'm here now―or at least my portrait is, even though I have no bloody idea when I got one," Sirius said in a soothing voice, trying to lighten the mood with the last part.

"Your uncle Alphard had commissioned it and somehow got it into the Black family vault at Gringotts," Harry explained, his face still wet, but at least the tears had stopped flowing.

"Bless uncle Alphard, may his soul rest in peace," Sirius said, a solitary tear falling down his painted cheeks when he remembered how much his uncle had done for him.

Before Harry or Sirius could say anything more, they were interrupted by Draco. "I'll leave you alone to talk. But don't stay up too long, after all, you have the whole weekend to catch up with him and it's already a quarter past midnight."

After his sudden revelation of being in love with Harry, the blond had been unsure how he should behave. On the one hand, he would have loved nothing more than to walk over to where Harry was kneeling on the stone floor and to take the brunet into his arms, wanting to comfort Harry in his current state of happy distress.

On the other hand, though, Draco had felt like he was intruding on a private moment between Harry and his godfather, and as they weren't a couple yet, it wasn't really his place to be next to Harry, especially since at the end of their fifth year he had been forced to make fun of Sirius' death to stay on Voldemort's good side.

So, in the end, Draco had decided that it would be better if he left Harry alone with the newly activated portrait of his godfather. Besides, this way he would have some moments on his own to come to terms with the fact that he loved Harry.

After fastening up his trousers, the blond had gotten up from the floor and informed Harry of his departure, before he left the room, and softly closed the door behind him.

"Who was that?" Sirius asked. As his portrait was still lying on the ground, he hadn't been able to see the blond boy.

"Draco," Harry answered, with a small smile on his face. "He's my Altair partner and performed the Portrait Activation Ritual with me," was all the brunet could say before Sirius interrupted him.

"Draco _Malfoy_?" the portrait asked, shocked. "The spoiled little brat that tried to get Buckbeak executed?" Sirius went on.

"Yes, Draco Malfoy," Harry said, then immediately added in his Altair partner's defence, "but he has changed."

However, Sirius didn't seem to hear the last part—or maybe he chose to ignore it—because, before Harry could say anything else in Draco's defence, Sirius asked the next question, "Who was in charge of assigning the Altair partners?"

"Snape," the brunet answered with a yawn, like usual leaving out the "Professor".

"Snivellus paired you with Malfoy!" Sirius screamed, now he was really angry with the Potions master. How could he pair his Harry with Malfoy of all people!? "I'll have to have a serious word with the bastard," he said, already standing upright and ready to walk out of his portrait to search for Severus.

"Calm down, Sirius," Harry said to stop his godfather from leaving the frame. He feared that Snape wouldn't hesitate to destroy Sirius' portrait if his godfather annoyed the Potions master too much. "Besides that he only reads out the list that a magical object generates, I'm really happy to have Draco as my partner. Without him I would never have known that your portrait needed to be activated," Harry informed Sirius.

This time Sirius finally seemed to listen to his godson, as he grudgingly sat down again and responded to Harry's praise of Draco. "Great, now I owe my new existence to a Malfoy," he said with a pout.

"You know, it could be worse," the brunet said.

"I don't see how it could be worse," was the portrait's answer.

"Yeah—h?," Harry asked rhetorically, dragging out the H because he was yawning once again. "Snape could have been the one to activate your portrait."

"I would rather burn this portrait myself than to let that happen," Sirius said earnestly, full of resolve.

"See, it could be worse," Harry said smugly, though another yawn swiftly erased the smirk off of his face.

"You know, maybe you should listen to what the Malfoy brat said and go to bed," Sirius suggested after Harry yawned for the fourth time in five minutes.

"But I just got you back," the brunet whined.

"And I'm not going anywhere or going to vanish again, so go to bed, Harry," Sirius ordered this time. When he saw that his godson was hesitating to leave, he added, "I'll even promise you that I won't leave the portrait to search for Snivellus."

With a last sigh, Harry resigned himself to his fate and said goodbye to his godfather, promising to come back in the morning.

Looking up for the first time in half an hour, Harry noticed that all of the five white candles were extinct, just like they should have been if the ritual had been performed correctly. Though, the brunet couldn't say that he had noticed the magical wind, which according to their book should have blown out the candles the moment Sirius' portrait was activated.

With a last wishful look at the portrait of his godfather, who had already closed his eyes in sleep, Harry left the special Altair room to join a sleeping Draco in their bed, not noticing that the blond was only pretending to be asleep as the other boy's mind was far too troubled by his feelings for Harry to find some much needed rest.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

When Draco woke up around eight in the morning, being used to getting up at that time after two months of classes, he was alone in the bed but could hear the shower running in the bathroom. Getting out of the bed, Draco went to their walk-in closet to pick out some fresh clothes for the day.

By the time he had everything he needed, he heard the bathroom door open.

"Morning," Harry greeted the blond with a big smile on his way to the Altair room.

"Good morning," Draco greeted back as he passed the brunet, not surprised at all to see Harry wearing one of his old Weasley jumpers instead of one of the new ones.

After Draco left the bathroom, he decided that he would spend the morning doing his Ancient Runes homework. He would use the time Harry would spend speaking with his godfather to contemplate whether he should or shouldn't act on his feelings for Harry and make the first move to start something more.

In a minute, Draco had gathered everything he would need―everything but his Ancient Runes textbook, which he had left on the living room coffee table Thursday evening. So, the blond left the bedroom and walked to the living room, where he was met by the sight of Harry propping his godfather's portrait up against the coffee table. Apparently, the brunet hadn't wanted to spend the whole morning cooped up in the dungeon look-alike that was their special Altair room, which Draco could totally understand.

"But really, Harry. I don't know why you don't want me to have a word with Snape. It's not like I can hex him, or anything," he heard Sirius complain to Harry, as the brunet sat down on a pillow in front of the portrait, his back resting against the sofa.

"Sorry, Black, but you'll have to make do with our Ritual Magic teacher," Draco said from the doorway, making his presence known. "Though, I can't deny that she sometimes reminds me of a female version of Severus who looks a bit like McGonagall."

"Their daughter?" Sirius asked jokingly. After Harry had briefed him on what Draco had done to help Harry defeat Voldemort, the brunet's godfather had warmed up to the blond boy, having developed a great respect for the young man. That Harry confirmed that Lucius really had been under the Imperius Curse, hadn't hurt either.

"Unlikely, she's about ten years older than us and from France," the blond said as he picked up his forgotten Ancient Runes textbook from the coffee table.

"And why do you want me to meet her, when you won't let me meet Snape?" Sirius asked Draco.

"Because, we have to prove to her that we successfully performed the Portrait Activation Ritual, and for that she'll need to see your portrait again. She will probably have some questions for you as well," the blond answered, throwing a longing look in Harry's direction before he walked out of the room, intending to complete his homework in the Slytherin common room to let Harry talk in private with his godfather.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"So," Harry began after the blond had left, but didn't know how he should continue, even though they had fifteen months of Harry's life to catch up on.

The brunet had already given Sirius a quick summary of how Voldemort was defeated when he moved the portrait from the special Altair room to the living room. And because he didn't want to ruin his good mood with talking any more about Voldemort, going into detail about what happened during the final battle was out of question.

Sirius wasn't faring any better as he answered with a "So?" of his own, not wanting to talk about Voldemort and his cronies either.

Trying to come up with another topic to talk about, Harry finally got inspired by Sirius' portrait. "You know, Sirius," he began. "I had been really nervous about the Portrait Activation Ritual."

When Sirius motioned for him to continue, Harry added, "You must know, it was the first ritual Draco and I performed. And unlike the sexual potions we have brewed before, failure didn't mean that we could simply start all over again with the ritual. So, I was even more nervous about botching it up."

"Understandable," Sirius said with a nod of his head, though he couldn't help but add, "However, considering what else you've already mastered―like killing a Basilisk at the age of twelve―something as simple as a Portrait Activation Ritual should be child's play in comparison."

"How would you know that a Portrait Activation Ritual would be easier than killing a Basilisk? I haven't heard of you doing either of them" Harry said. While he, of course, had been a bundle of nerves when he had gotten down into the Chamber of Secrets, he had been full of adrenalin too. So, without the adrenalin to give him an extra kick and the recentness of the event, for Harry the Portrait Activation Ritual had felt much more stressful and demanding than the slaughter of the Basilisk.

"I'm a Black, remember?" Sirius asked rhetorically.

Nevertheless, Harry still answered him, "And all Blacks have an obsession for portraits. So, of course, you would know all about the ritual," he said with a smack to his head. How could he have forgotten about the Blacks' fondness of portraits, even though their Gringotts vault had been full of them?

"Exactly," the portrait answered. "Besides, Malfoy's mother is a born Black, so you should have been in good hands," Sirius said, not even bothering to point out that Harry and Draco obviously had done it right for him to be able to speak to his godson at this very moment.

"Trust me, I was," Harry said proudly, a happy smile on his face. The brunet still couldn't believe his luck to have gotten an Altair partner who could so easily could calm him down like Draco could. Really, he didn't know what he would have done without the blond boy by his side.

"Really, considering everything Draco has done for me so far, I should have known that my Draco would ensure that everything went smoothly and that I would be as comfortable as possible," he finally admitted with a dreamy and happy look on his face.

"_Your_ Draco?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow, obviously teasing his godson about the use of the possessive pronoun. It hadn't escaped his notice that Harry seemed to genuinely like the Malfoy heir.

After turning a bright shade of red, Harry attempted to cover up his mistakes. "Yes, Draco,_ my Altair partner,_" the brunet stressed.

"You know, Harry. You and Malfoy remind me of Lily and James," Sirius said with a secretive smile.

"My parents?" Harry asked, wondering why he and Draco reminded his godfather about them.

"Yes. Just like you and Malfoy, the two fought like cats and dogs before they became Altair partners in their seventh year."

Letting out a chuckle, Sirius added, "I still fondly remember how James let out a cry of joy when he heard that he and Lily were partners. And then in his usual James-like manner, he walked over to where Lily stood, put an arm around her shoulder, and made the classic Head Girl joke. Your mother, of course, slapped him right on the head for his stunt," the portrait said with a fond smile on his painted lips.

"But after that day, it soon became obvious to everyone that they were falling in love fast with each other, and would end up marrying once they left Hogwarts. Or at least Lily was starting to fall, as James had already been in love with her from the first time he saw her on the Hogwarts Express."

After a pause, which Sirius gave Harry to assimilate the new information about his parents, the Animagus couldn't help but ask, "And, Harry, have you and Malfoy already set a date for the big event?"

"What?" Harry asked, perplexed. He had no idea what his godfather was talking about. Maybe he had missed something Sirius said while he had imagined how his parents had become a couple through their Altair electives?

"Have you and Malfoy already set a wedding date?" Sirius elaborated. "Surely you two are already in love with each other," the portrait said as it would be as secure as the sun rising every morning.

_Am I in love with Draco?_ Harry asked himself. And he had to admit that he couldn't answer that question with a clear "Yes", but neither could he answer with a simple "No."

"I don't know," Harry finally confessed with a sigh and a shrug of his shoulders. "Though, I have to admit that last month I was worried that we had accidentally gotten married to each other," Harry told his godfather, remembering about their unexpected fourth order bond.

"How can someone get married on accident?" Sirius asked, bewildered; in all his life he had never heard of two people getting married by accident.

"Apparently there are some old bonding rituals from the time of the ancient Greece and Rome. If you aren't careful, you can easily end up performing one of them just by having sex thrice in certain positions and saying a phrase or two."

"Really?" the portrait asked, astonished. "Makes me wonder why it doesn't happen all the time," he muttered under his breath.

"That's easy," Harry answered, having heard his godfather's mumble. "While some people nowadays may scream out things like 'don't stop...love you', they still only roughly mean 'I'll never stop loving you'.

"In Latin and Ancient Greek though, those two phrases were exactly the same. Thus, two people accidentally married when they theoretically only said to not stop and that they loved each other," Harry explained to his godfather, his cheeks only turning a light shade of pink at the mentioning of sex talk. Apparently, it was easier for him to talk with Sirius about such things than with Hermione. But then, Sirius was more like a mix of big brother and funny uncle to him, and not his best female friend with whom you talk about love, but not about sex.

"Though, I have to admit, that I don't know if it really works with the translated English phrase as no one has ever tried it out. But, as both the Greece and the Roman bonding rituals only differ in the language of the phrase, I would assume that it would work with English too," the brunet added.

"Interesting," was all Sirius said. After a pause he asked, "And how did you find out that you and Malfoy aren't married?"

"Ehm...yeah," Harry began, trying to come up with a good point to start the story while he messed up his hair. Deciding that the beginning would be the best option, he said, "You must know that Draco and I only started to wonder about our marital status after it was revealed that we had a fourth order bond."

"Really?" Sirius shouted in disbelief. He knew that only married couples or so called 'soul mates' shared a fourth order bond. "Shit, a fourth order bond," he added after a moment, shaking his head.

"Yeah, that was what we thought, too," Harry said. "So, we, of course, wondered if we somehow had gotten married to each other without our knowledge.

"Because I didn't want to tell Hermione about it, I began to research on my own. I found a potion which shows whether two people are married or not, but it would take a full year to brew the potion and I don't think that one can buy such a rarely used potion somewhere in Diagon Alley," the brunet informed his godfather.

"You must be speaking about the Matrimonio Potion," Sirius correctly concluded.

"Yes, that was the name of it," Harry confirmed. "Anyway, with the potion out of the question, I shifted the focus of my research from discovering the marital status to ways one could marry. That's when I came across the old marriage rituals from ancient Greek and Rome. And while I didn't find one ritual which coincides with what Draco and I did, I still can't cross out the option that maybe there is a ritual not in the books that we may have performed," Harry said.

"So, I can only assume that Draco and I have a fourth order bond because we are just really compatible, and not because we accidentally married." _And maybe also because we followed Thothus Malfoy's instruction on how to get a strong bond,_ Harry added in his thoughts only. After all, he had promised Draco to tell no one about the journal.

"Though, considering that we ended up in Room Zero, it's very likely that we're just really compatible," the brunet added as an afterthought.

"FUCK, ROOM ZERO? The two of you really got into Room ZERO?" Sirius cried out. Harry was surprised that someone who was dead still could scream so loud. But then, Walburga's portrait had been a real pain in the ass too. So, he shouldn't be surprised that her son could scream as loudly as her.

"Ehm...yeah," Harry confirmed after Sirius had finally finished screaming out his surprise.

"You know, I always wanted to know how the famous Room Zero looked like from the inside," the portrait said. "I had been really surprised when James and Lily hadn't been assigned to it in our days."

While Harry liked that he finally had the previously missing puzzle piece of how his parents went from loathing to loving each other, he really didn't want to know the details about their Altair time. So, to change the topic, he asked, "Say, Sirius, did you also apply to the Altair electives?"

"Yes, of course," the portrait immediately answered. "Do you really think that a seventeen-year-old teenage boy would miss out on the chance to get laid regularly with the pretext of doing homework? Moony, though, couldn't apply for them, with his monthly visits and all..." Sirius added ruefully.

He could still remember the sad look on Remus' face when he and James had filled out their Altair applications. But, they all knew that the risk that Remus would be paired with someone outside of the Marauders was too great for the werewolf to apply.

Wanting to get the sad look off of his godfather's face, Harry asked, "And who was your Altair partner?" He really was genuinely interested with whom Sirius had been the most compatible.

"Snape," Sirius deadpanned.

"SNAPE!" Harry cried out in horror and disbelief. "And you two are still alive?" he asked when he had calmed down enough to speak again.

"I'm not exactly alive, am I?" the portrait asked jokingly with a raised eyebrow.

"You know what I mean," Harry said.

"Yes. But you haven't heard the best part of it yet. Or maybe the worst. It depends on your viewpoint," Sirius said with an expression that was a mix of amusement and disgust.

"What could be worse than having Snape as your partner?" Harry wondered.

"Our compatible Typos Thesis," the portrait answered dryly.

"But being compatible is a good thing, isn't it?" the brunet asked. In his opinion, if his godfather had had to endure Snape as his Sexual Magic partner for a whole year, then having compatible Typos Thesis could only be in their favour, as successfully completing their task should have been hard enough already between the two arch-enemies.

"For the general success of Sexual Magic, yes," Sirius answered. "But it wasn't the compatibility that complicated things, it was how the roles and positions were split up between us," the portrait explained.

"While I'm a submissive top, Snivellus is a dominant bottom. So, I'm sure you can imagine how that turned out," he revealed.

And Harry could clearly imagine how it must have been between the two. Sirius not wanting to be dominated by Snape and therefore trying to argue that as the one with the top position, he should be the one in charge. Snape, on the other hand, would surely dismiss his godfather's claims by stating that while he was the bottom, his role was still that of the dominant partner, thus he should be the one who held the reins.

And the brunet didn't even want to start thinking about their disputes of which sex position would be best. Knowing Sirius he would have wanted one where he could humiliate Snape, like the doggy style position; while Snape would prefer a position which would allow him to be in control, like the cowboy position. Really, those two would have taken the whole 'How to top from the bottom' issue to a completely new level.

"How have you been able to pass your Altair electives?" Harry had to ask. He really couldn't imagine those two rivals calling a truce long enough to complete their assignments, even less to successfully complete them.

"I didn't pass. But then, I had dropped out of all my Altair classes after the second week of school," Sirius said.

"But Snape and McGonagall told us that one cannot drop out of them once you're assigned a partner," Harry said in disbelief. _Why had Snape taken such a great care in emphasising that you can't switch your partner if he obviously had been able to get rid of his own? _Harry wondered.

"And they haven't lied. Snape and I had just been able to use a little loophole in the rules to our favour. You must know that Altair partners can only be exchanged if the new pair is more compatible than the old one. But as you must be of age to sign up for Altair classes your choices are restricted to the students in your year. So, there is no sense in trying to reassign partners after the school year started as the student pool hasn't increased," the portrait explained.

"So, I was really lucky that not only my birthday is in September, but that my brother Regulus was also born in that month. As Snape and my brother got along rather well, we all thought that it wouldn't hurt to try to get Regulus paired to Snape. Normally, of course, something like this isn't done as the average sixth year student would turn of age too late in the year to not miss too many classes by the time he could apply to the Altair electives.

"But with Regulus' birthday being on the thirteenth, and with me being one of Dumbledore's favourites while Snape was one of Slughorn's, we had also both the headmaster and the professor in charge of assigning the Altair partners on our side. So, on Regulus' birthday the three of us filled out the Altair form again and Slughorn put it into the magical device that assigns the partners based on their compatibility," the portrait said.

"Needless to say, the announcement of Snape being paired with my brother was one of the best moments of my life," Sirius exclaimed joyfully. "Remus and I had so much fun in the room we shared," he told his godson with a mischievous smile, leaving it up to Harry's own speculations whether the 'fun' had also been of a sexual nature.

But his happy expression soon became remorseful, when he added, "But still, I can't help but wonder if Regulus would still be alive if I had just shut up and stayed Snape's partner."

Noticing Harry's puzzled look, Sirius realised that he needed to elaborate. "You must know that my brother became a Death Eater sometime during his sixth year. But only a year after graduating from Hogwarts, he wanted to get out and was killed to make an example. So, I can't help but wonder if maybe not my parents, but Snape had been the deciding factor for him to join the Death Eaters."

"You know," Harry, who had until then listened to his godfather's little tale with rapt interest, interrupted, "it could also be possible that Regulus was the one to persuade Snape to join the Death Eaters." While Harry still didn't like the Potions master, he couldn't help but to defend the man. After all, Severus had saved his life countless of times in the last years―including not only one, but two times during the final battle in the beginning of May.

"If you say so..." was the portrait's meek reply and Harry knew that this would be as good as he would get from his godfather on that matter.

"Though, I can't imagine that Snape and I would have been able to last a year with only having sex in the lotus position―as this was the only one we could agree on. After only two weeks, I already had enough of his 'obedient dog' jokes in reference to my Animagus form and my Typos Thesis' role," he added with an angry scowl on his face. He still couldn't forgive that the Potions master made fun of his Typos Thesis and the Animagus form he was so proud of.

While he found the mentioned lotus position intriguing and was interested to try it out with Draco, the brunet didn't want to talk about Snape's sex life any longer, especially if it also included his godfather.

_The times__―__or was it only one time?__―__they had sex must have been as disastrous as if their animal counterparts, __the Grim and the bat, would have tried to have intercourse,_ was Harry's last thought on that particular matter, before he changed the subject of their talk.

"You know, I'm sure Hermione would have loved to start with the Altair electives in her sixth year too," the brunet said.

"Another thing to blame Bella-bitch for," Sirius said, angrily. "I really had wanted to take her aside at the beginning of her sixth year and tell her all about the Altair electives. With her birthday being even earlier in the school year than Regulus' one, Dumbledore would surely have allowed her to start a year early."

"I believe that Hermione is rather happy with her partner. And besides, I think Mrs. Weasley paid Bellatrix back nicely," Harry answered.

"Is it someone I know?" the portrait asked. While Hermione wasn't his goddaughter, he still had a soft spot for the bushy-haired know-it-all.

"It's Blaise Zabini," Harry said.

"Ah, the son of the infamous 'Black Widow'. While not as famous for Sexual Magic as the Malfoys, his mother's family is still rumoured to be very adept in Enchanting," Sirius stated matter of factly. "So, as long as those two get along personally, he should be a good choice for her. At least, he should be able to answer most of her questions," the portrait said with a chuckle.

"Ron didn't think so," Harry said. And then went on to tell Sirius about how the red-head had reacted to Hermione and Harry signing up for Altair classes and that he had come around now.

By the time Harry was finished with the tale, his stomach had started to growl loudly. In his eagerness and excitement, Harry had skipped breakfast and coupled with the fasting from the ritual, it was high time that the brunet got something into his stomach.

"Go and eat lunch, Harry," Sirius ordered.

Being too hungry to disobey, Harry slowly got up. He still hadn't gotten completely used to the penetration and still got sore when he bottomed. However, the brunet couldn't deny that the soreness wasn't as bad as in the beginning of the school year.

"See you soon," Harry said as he left the room.

But before the brunet had taken more than two steps towards the door, Sirius called after him, "And, Harry, don't forget to give Ron a nice whack on the head from me."

"Will do," Harry answered. Sirius had been so displeased by Ron's reaction that he had asked Harry to knock some sense into the red-head, as he couldn't do it himself. Though, Sirius would most likely have played a prank on Ron instead of hitting him if he had still been alive.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

As Harry was walking down the staircase from the balcony to the Altair common room, he saw Blaise and Hermione sitting together with Michael Corner and Stephen Cornfoot, obviously working together on one of their assignments.

"Hey, Harry," Ron called out from downstairs. "It's a good thing that you've cancelled today's practice. It has been raining cats and dogs all morning."

"I haven't noticed," Harry truthfully answered. All of his attention had been focused on Sirius, so something as unimportant as rain hadn't interested him.

"What have you been doing to not notice this downpour?" Ron asked, bewildered.

Instead of answering right away, Harry decided to fulfil the promise he gave Sirius first and slapped Ron on the head.

"HEY! What was that for, mate?" Ron asked, angry.

"Just doing something Sirius told me to do this morning," Harry said with a very, very big grin on his face.

"Very funny, Harry," Ron mumbled as he rubbed his aching head. He, understandably, did think that Harry was only using Sirius' name as a very dumb excuse, thus he was angry at the brunet. That was until Hermione rushed past him, and jumped Harry, giving the brunet a tight hug. Then, he was only confused.

"Oh, Harry," Hermione cried out while Harry was unintentionally swirling her around due to the momentum her jump had given them. "I'm so happy for you!"

Because of Ron's loud outcry after the slap, Hermione had heard Harry's comment about Sirius asking him to do it. And, unlike the red-head, Hermione had correctly guessed from Harry's words that he really had talked with Sirius this morning. Or at least with the wizard's portrait, if her conclusion was correct.

She, of course, had been curious why Harry was cancelling a Quidditch practice a day in advance. But, as she and Blaise had also used yesterday's magic enchanting quality to boost one of their own projects for their Enchanting class, she had gathered that Harry must be busy with one of his Ritual Magic projects as they didn't have any Sexual Potions to brew.

When she and Blaise had discussed the topic this morning, the Slytherin had been the one to jokingly suggest that Draco and Harry's project could be a Portrait Activation Ritual. With Draco's mother being a Black and Harry being the current head of the Black family, them honouring the Black's love for portraits would have been the obvious choice for a Halloween ritual, if there wasn't the tiny, little problem with getting their hands on a still unenchanted portrait.

_Surely Harry would have told me if he had somehow found an unenchanted portrait of Sirius?_ Hermione had thought. In her reasoning it was very likely that Sirius hadn't gotten one because he had been disowned from the family. But when she had heard him say that he had talked to Sirius this morning, she couldn't help but to assume the best.

When Harry finally set her down, Hermione had calmed down enough to slap the brunet hard on the left shoulder. "Really, Harry," she scolded. "You should have told me that you had found his portrait," she explained the reason behind her whack.

"I forgot?" Harry said lamely, which earned him another, harder whack from his friend.

"Blaise, keep your girl in check," Draco called out from the Slytherin entrance door of the Altair common room, having finished his homework and wanting to put his book away in his room. The blond knew from personal experience how much Hermione's slaps hurt and so far, he had seen her slap Harry twice and would hate to see him get slapped for a third time.

"But she would only slap me too," Blaise whined, enjoying how Hermione, so carefree, slapped the defeater of Voldemort, while Harry didn't even try to defend himself.

"Then bind her to the bed for all I care," Draco answered, not so inconspicuously referring to Hermione's bondage kink.

"Very funny, Mr. I'm-turned-on-by-socks," was Hermione's comeback. Even though she didn't believe that either of them had a sock kink, the colour of their Lloj Potion still allowed for this kink to be a possibility.

"That would be Dobby," Harry said in Draco's defence and received his third slap from Hermione for his effort.

"Or Dumbledore," Draco commented from his position safely out of the Head Girl's hitting range.

Before the situation could escalate, Ron interfered. "Could you please tell me what you're all talking on about?" he asked. Opposed to Michael Corner and Stephen Cornfoot―the only other occupants of the common room besides the three Gryffindors and two Slytherins―Ron hadn't the slightest idea what they were referring to.

Unsurprisingly, it was the only female in the room who answered the red-head's question. "You see, Ron. Harry here," she began in with a glare in the brunet's direction, only just restraining herself from slapping her friend again, "has by mischance forgotten to tell us that he had found Sirius' portrait."

"Seriously?" Ron asked.

"Yes," Harry confirmed with a nod of his head.

"Wow, that's great mate," the youngest Weasley son said. "Though, does that mean that Sirius did really ask you to slap me?"

"Yes. He said that you've earned it for been a right A-classed jerk at the beginning of the school year," Harry said.

Before Ron or anyone else could say anything more, Harry's stomach loudly demanded to be filled which got the group of five moving towards the Great Hall for lunch.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN2:** I hope you liked this chapter. I tried to use the Altair electives to explain some things which canon left out (like how Lily and James became a couple).

Also, "don't stop...love you" and "I'll never stop loving you" is most likely not the same in the ancient languages. But, I'm sure you already guessed as much.

If you haven't heard their songs yet, check out the bands "Draco and the Malfoys" and "The Whomping Willows" (especially "In Which Draco and Harry Secretly Want to Make Out", Trust me you'll love that song as the title says it all).

**Next: **Probably the boys brewing the Zët Potion I mentioned in chapter 24 and with it a two weeks' time skip. Any special strong dislikes you want the boys to have? Currently I only have two for each boy.


	29. Chapter 28 Rainy days spent in Room Zero

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes and kinks

**Beta:** Platinum

**AN: **I'm alive and really sorry for the long delay. And before you ask, No, the story isn't on hiatus or abandoned. Besides RL and university having been busy, I had a hard time finishing the previous chapter of my other story (Verbuar) and my final exams started.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 28 – Rainy days spent in Room Zero-~-~-**

Saturday, 1st November 1997

Draco wasn't surprised when Harry asked him after lunch if his friends could visit their room to meet Sirius' portrait. He was surprised though, when Blaise asked if he could tag along.

"You don't even know Black," Draco said as he and his friend walked up the stairs of the Altair common room. The blond didn't understand why Blaise would want to meet Harry's godfather.

"For one, I'm curious about your _handiwork_," Blaise answered with a wink. "And second, Hermione will most likely tell me all about it anyway. So, I can as well come too and save myself from listening to her report later. Besides, I really want to drink a Coke," he finished with a small pout on his lips.

"It's up to Harry," Draco answered. "It's his godfather after all."

Having heard the comment, Harry turned around. After a moment of indecision, he said, "Why not. You can help Draco to not feel too out of place with all the Gryffindors around."

Opening the door, Harry stepped through it to hold it open for the others. Draco entered first so that he too could invite everyone else into Room Zero.

"You know, if this room wouldn't remind me so much of the Slytherin common room, I would be jealous," Ron said when he saw the living room of Room Zero for the first time. "It's so unfair that you not only got your own bathroom but your own kitchen too," he continued.

"And you haven't even seen the best part yet, Weasley," Draco said as he and Harry got some Coke bottles for everyone.

"And what would that be, Malfoy?" Ron asked, not knowing what would be better than having his own kitchen, where he could fry some sausages without having to walk all the way to the kitchen after curfew if he had a sudden craving.

"The perfect view of the Quidditch pitch," Draco said as he handed over one of the Coke bottles to an eagerly waiting Blaise, who had secretly hoped that the blond would shock Ron with saying something like "The drawer full of sex toys" instead.

Unaware of Blaise's dirty thoughts, the red-head didn't hesitate to walk over towards the big window and take a good look on the brilliant view.

"And here I thought you've missed me," Sirius announced, when he noticed that neither Ron nor Hermione paid him any attention. And as desired, everyone turned their heads in his direction.

"Of course we missed you, Sirius," Hermione said, turning her eyes away from Ron and focusing them on the portrait.

"And why haven't you greeted me yet?" he asked cheekily.

"Because I only have one chance to see Ron's reaction to Room Zero after his scene in the beginning of the year," Hermione told Sirius.

"Do you still need to pick on it? I already apologized a day after it happened," Ron said, annoyed that Hermione obviously still couldn't let the matter rest in the past, where it belonged.

"I know and I'm sorry. It's just good to see that you really changed your mind about it," Hermione answered truthfully, taking the drink Harry offered and letting herself fall down in the middle of the comfy sofa. She felta bit ashamed that she didn't seem able to let go of it, even though Ron had already shown that he'd changed.

Ron didn't say anything about it, not wanting the conversation to drag on any longer. So, without another word, he took his seat to Hermione's right, while Blaise sat down to her left and Harry and Draco settled into their armchairs.

"So, why haven't you told us before that you found Sirius' portrait?" Hermione asked. She had respected Harry's wish to not ask any questions about the portrait during lunch. But as he had promised to tell them about it when they were in Room Zero, she couldn't wait any longer.

"I didn't want to raise any false hopes," Harry began, having though about what to tell his friends during lunch. "I found his portrait when I went to Gringotts in August. But it hadn't been activated yet. Not that I knew that at that time," Harry admitted sheepishly.

"Anyway," the brunet went on, "it was pure luck that Draco mentioned that wizarding portraits needed to be activated. And yeah...here we are," he finished lamely, not wanting to say anything particular about the Portrait Activating Ritual. Not because Ron was in the room, but simply because he was too embarrassed to speak about it in front of his friends and Blaise―especially Blaise with his sexual jokes.

"If you'd told me, I would have loved to help you with the research and preparations," Hermione said, her love for research evident in her voice.

"And that's exactly why they didn't tell you," Blaise said dryly.

"Blaise's right," Draco agreed. "Harry was nervous enough as it was. He really didn't need you to constantly approach him with new information and _tips_ about the ritual. And even if you had held back, the two of you knowing about it and excitedly awaiting the activation would have put even more pressure on him," Draco explained the reason why they had decided to keep their Ritual Magic project a secret until they successfully performed it, even though it made Harry feel out of place as, they were talking like he wasn't in the room with them.

"I understand," Hermione said in a soft voice. "And I'm sorry that I slapped you earlier," she added. It seemed today was the Head Girl's day of apologies. "It was just that Blaise and I had joked about the two of you having performed it this morning with both of your connections to the Blacks and their love of portraits; and then you show up and hint that you've really done it without telling us beforehand. And I just felt left out. Like you didn't trust me enough to tell me about it," she tried to explain her actions.

"Enough with all the apologies and explanations," Sirius said firmly, not giving them any room to contradict him. "So, what have you two been up to in the last year and a half, besides quarrelling?" he asked Hermione and Ron. The latter of the two finally able to stop disavowing that Sirius had an active portrait as he had been too overwhelmed with taking in Room Zero to truly register the happy event.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"You know what I've been wondering about?" Harry rhetorically asked his godfather's portrait. After three hours Hermione, Ron and Blaise had left and Draco was currently in the bathroom. "How can we so freely talk about the things related to the Altair electives if Altair Black's spell should prevent it?" the brunet wondered aloud.

"As much as I would like to say that it's because I'm a Black and you're the current head of the Black family. But I believe I can tell you details about Snape's, Regulus' and your parents' Altair experiences without their given consent because we're inside the Altair rooms at Hogwarts," Sirius guessed.

"Alhough, I do not believe that even Dumbledore understands all aspects of the spell," the portrait added. "But then again, it really is a very complex piece of spellwork to ensure that one cannot tell the press of who is partnered with whom. But on the other hand, you can still somehow inform your family and friends outside of Hogwarts who your partner is, if the other party agrees for the partnership to be revealed to them, even if it's only on the subconscious level," Sirius talked about his own experience with the boundaries of the spell.

When Draco came back from the bathroom, the blond told Harry, "It's a good thing that Blaise joined us. Without him, we would have had a harder time to keep Hermione in check."

"Knowing her though, I wouldn't be surprised if she's in the library right now and plans to pepper Blaise with questions when she comes back," Harry said.

"As long as she doesn't bother our Ritual Magic teacher," Draco answered. "Blaise told me that when she researched how the Weasleys' family clock worked, even their Enchanting professor got so annoyed with her constant questions that he threatened her with expulsion from his classroom if she didn't stop pestering him. I wouldn't be surprised if our professor blames us if Hermione annoys her."

"And I thought Ron was the only one who was near snapping when she asked him questions about the clock he couldn't answer," Harry said as he got up and said goodbye to Sirius and Draco.

He'd already spent the whole morning and afternoon in Room Zero, so it was high time for him to go to the Gryffindor common room and make an appearance before dinner. With everyone being forced to spend the day inside because of the constant rain, someone was bound to notice his absence.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

After Harry left, and Draco was alone in the living room, he sat down on his favourite place― namely the window seat―and let his eyes fall shut. As the rain softly fell against the glass, creating a rhythmic background noise, Draco thought back about the decision he made this morning.

While doing his Ancient Runes homework, he made a mental list of the pros and cons of moving his and Harry's relationship to the next level and whether or not he should admit his feelings. In the end, he had decided to not say anything to Harry yet. Not because he was too afraid to take the risk of being rejected―he knew that you could only gain something if you're willing to risk something else first, but because it just wasn't the right time yet.

For one, Harry had just gotten back his beloved godfather and Draco wanted to give Harry enough time to get reacquainted with him and just enjoy the happiness the activation of the portrait brought without anything diminishing the joy Harry felt.

But this would only justify a delay of a week or two, and not the nearly two months Draco had decided on. This prolonged wait was caused by Draco's second point. The blond knew that it wouldn't be good for his and Harry's friendship if his love confession would make Harry feel awkward and uncomfortable around him, especially since they still had Sexual Potions to brew and ritual techniques to practise on and with each other.

So, Draco had come to the conclusion that he would wait until the Yule holidays, after they finished their next Ritual Magic project on the winter solstice to make his move. If it didn't go as well as he hoped, then Harry would have two weeks to get comfortable around him again. Besides, it would be good if they weren't forced to share a bed, so if Harry needed his distance he could always visit the Weasleys and have some space from him.

Thus, Draco had roughly two months to make Harry fall in love with him too, without actually manipulating the brunet to return his feelings. He just hoped that the small hints he planned to give the other boy during the next weeks would be enough to get a little sign from Harry whether or not he felt the same way.

With a sigh, Draco opened his eyes again and watched as the rain changed back from the soft falling of water drops in the early afternoon to the heavy downpour of the morning.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

It was later that night, half an hour before midnight, when the heavy rain from the late afternoon finally became the thunderstorm everyone had expected to come. And while Draco was already peacefully asleep in the land of dreams, using his bed partner's right arm as a cuddly toy, Harry was far away from sleep.

Just like the night before the blond's mind had been far too troubled by his feelings for Harry to find some much needed rest, Harry was thinking too much about Sirius' comment in the morning to fall asleep. In between talking to Sirius in the morning, the afternoon spent with his friends, and the evening making an appearance in Gryffindor tower, he didn't have a chance to ponder more on the comment.

_'Surely you two are already in love with each other' that's what Sirius said so carelessly, like there wasn't any doubt in his mind that we're in love,_ Harry remembered his godfather's words as he watched Draco sleep. And just like some hours before, he still hadn't a straight yes or no answer to the question if he loved the young man in front of him.

Did he find Draco sexually attractive? Did he enjoy what they did together as part of their Sexual Magic coursework? The answer to those questions was a clear 'Yes'. He couldn't deny that Draco was a very fit bloke and also a talented lover, even though he had as much sexual experience as he and Harry hoped that Draco enjoyed what he did to the blond as well. But if the sounds the blond made were anything to go by, Harry was satisfying Draco as much as the other satisfied him.

As Harry's eyes wandered from the blond's naked chest to his pink lips, Harry's mind asked him if he also liked just kissing Draco. And while deep in his heart Harry knew that he did enjoy just kissing the other boy, he didn't want to admit it to himself even though he unconsciously made sure to kiss the blond at least once a day with either a good morning or a good night kiss. Wanting to dismiss the question his treacherous mind came up with, Harry asked himself instead, _But what experience do I have in matters of love?_

_There was_ _Cho, who cried when we kissed that one time because she was thinking about her dead ex-boyfriend, _he began the short count_. _

_And then there was Ginny.._. Harry really didn't want to think about his short romantic relationship with Ginny as it invoked a completely new fear in him.

If he was truthful to himself, he could admit that he loved the blond in a platonic way. After living together for two months, spending so much time together, exploring sex and Sexual Magic together, sharing some stories from their childhoods and comparing their memories of the first Hogwarts years, Harry couldn't help himself but to deeply care for Draco, who he had gotten to know so well.

But even if he thought that he had romantic feelings for Draco, he feared that just like with Ginny, he was confusing them with a brotherly love for the blond, and would never admit even to himself that he had those feelings. That they were Altair partners only complicated the situation more.

_Maybe I should talk with someone about it?_ Get an outsider's objective opinion? Harry wondered. It would be nice if someone could help him figure out what exactly the nature of his feeling for Draco were as he wanted to avoid another 'romantic love turned into brotherly love' situation as it would feel very, very weird to have sex with someone who you saw as a brother. So, Harry thought that it would be good to get the opinion of an outsider. The three most obvious choices which came to mind were Ginny, Hermione and Sirius.

_Ginny wouldn't be the best choice because she too confused the brotherly love with the romantic kind,_ Harry argued. _Besides, I can't tell her the whole magnitude of the problem with her still being sixteen and unaware of the Altair classes... _Harry dismissed his ex-girlfriend.

_Hermione wouldn't be the best choice either,_ he thought. _While I'm sure that she would be able to figure out the nature of my love for Draco, she would need to ask me too many questions I don't want to answer before she would give me a final answer. And ones she knows about it, she most likely would ask me every now and then how it was going or __i__f I wanted to share something more._

_Which leaves me with Sirius,_ Harry concluded. _I certainly can talk with him about it, _he thought. _Though it would be wise to wait __a few__ days before asking him. He still seems to need some time to accept that the Malfoys hadn't followed Voldemort of their own free will. But then, he'd only been alive __again__ for a day._

_Or maybe I should talk to Neville?_ Harry wondered, suddenly another option crossing his mind. _He certainly won't press me for information I don't want to give and, opposed to Sirius, he already accepted the Malfoys' role in the war..._

In the end, Harry decided that he would try to figure it out on his own first before he would approach either Neville or Sirius for their advice.

Having reached a decision, Harry came back to the present, registering that his free left hand had found its way into the blond's soft hair while he had been thinking. He was glad that Draco hadn't woken up as he had absently caressed the blond locks. Gingerly taking his hand back, Harry got comfortable on his back and was surprised when Draco unconsciously snuggled closer to him so that his head rest on Harry's right shoulder.

After giving Draco a soft kiss on the top of his head, which he couldn't resist doing, his mind felt like it was calmed down enough to let him get some rest, so he closed his eyes, soon falling asleep with the other boy right beside him.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Saturday, 8th November 1997

A week had past and Harry still hadn't figured out if his love for Draco was brotherly or romantic in nature. But then it had been a busy week.

Sunday, Harry had spent talking more with his godfather's portrait, and studying for his Transfiguration test. He had been lucky that Hermione reminded him about the test during lunch, or otherwise he was sure that he would have failed the test.

On Monday, Harry had been busy with his classes and the Quidditch practice in the afternoon. On Tuesday he had been too worried about what his Ritual Magic teacher would say about their performed ritual to think about Draco. As for the rest of the week, his mind had been preoccupied with thoughts about what Sirius was up to and missing the man's portrait to be able to think clearly.

Harry couldn't understand why his Ritual Magic teacher had reciprocated Sirius' flirting and insisted that she kept the portrait for some more days to thoroughly investigate if they've done the Portrait Activation Ritual correctly.

_As if this was necessary. Surely the fact alone that Sirius was speaking, moving around in his portrait and having all of his memories from his childhood up to the day of his death is sign enough that the ritual was a success,_ Harry thought, missing his godfather and being sad that he couldn't ask him for advice with his unsolved 'Draco problem'.

But at least he had today's Quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff to look forward to and judging by the Great Hall's ceiling, it would be a rain free day with only some clouds darkening the sky.

At a quarter after ten, Harry was standing besides Ron and Ginny in the Gryffindor stands, Hermione being absent as it wasn't her house playing today.

"I really hope that it doesn't start raining," Harry commented to Ron as the clouds seemed to multiply and get darker with the minute, and they were only twelve minutes into the game.

"Me too, mate, me too," Ron answered, not letting his eyes of the game as Hufflepuff was near to making another goal and Ron wanted to know all of their tricks for when it would be his time to ward the Chasers off.

Ten minutes later, Harry and his friends were feverishly watching the game as the first rain drops started falling. _So much about a rain free day,_ the brunet thought, right before he spotted the Golden Snitch hovering near to the ground of the Ravenclaw stands.

Neither of the playing Seekers seemed to notice the fluttering ball as they were both looking towards the now dark grey sky. Though, as far as Harry could tell from where he was standing, it seems like Draco seemed to have spotted the Snitch too.

"The Seekers should concentrate more on the Snitch than on the weather," Harry commented, to which Ginny hummed in agreement, while Ron tried to find the Snitch Harry and Ginny had spotted.

"It would be wise to cast an Impervius Charm," Ginny said as she took her eyes off the players to cast the charm in the hope that her robe would stay mostly dry for the rest of the game.

Both Harry and her brother agreed and quickly copied the motion. But not even ten minutes later, it felt like they hadn't bothered to cast the charm at all. The light rain had changed into a strong downpour, and the three could see the first students leaving the stands in favour of reaching the dry castle. Harry even heard some fourth-years saying that they wanted to try to get to one of the windows which overlooked the pitch to continue watching the game―with their Omnioculars they should still be able to see the players clearly.

After another five minutes passed and the amount of rain didn't lessen at all, Harry couldn't deny that the idea to go back into the castle and just watch the game from his living room window sounded very tempting, especially since half of the spectators already had left the stands and the sky wasn't getting any brighter.

His last resolve to stay and watch the game out in the rain was broken when he saw how Draco and Blaise left their own seats and were on their way inside, as were all of the remaining Slytherin players. "Sorry, Ron" he said to his friend, "but I'll watch the rest of it from inside. With the rain I can hardly see anything."

"I'll come with you," Ginny added from his left. "Luna and Neville have already left five minutes ago," she added.

Hesitantly, Ron accompanied them as he didn't want to be the only one left standing in the stands; even most of the teachers had left at that point. The red-head just hoped that Madam Hooch would soon announce a break until the weather got better.

_Surely not even Dumbledore wouldn't risk all fourteen players getting ill and risk the ire of Pomfrey, would he?_ Ron asked himself as he followed his friends up the stairs towards the Gryffindor tower.

After the boys parted ways with Ginny in the common room so that the sixteen-year-old could change into dry clothes, Harry and Ron made their way towards their own rooms, neither of them remembering that Harry could have easily invited Ron to watch the rest of the game from the living room window in Room Zero, even though Harry planned to do make use of the window himself. But then, Ron had only visited Room Zero once and over the last two months it had become a habit that they would split ways once they reached the landing, as Harry's room was to the left of the stairs while Ron's was on the right side.

"Urgh," Harry said as he got out of his shoes and soaked outer-robes and hanged the robe beside Draco's equally quenched cloak, just in time remembering to retrieve his Omnioculars from his robe pocket. Entering the bedroom, Harry started to strip out of his cardigan and shirt, which were both as wet as his robes.

Just as he had gotten out of his shirt, which because of the wetness had stubbornly clung to his skin, a towel smacked him on the head, before hanging down from his left shoulder. Turning around, he saw a shirtless Draco walking towards him, towelling his blond hair with a towel of his own.

"I thought that you could use one," the blond said as a way of explanation for the thrown bathroom item.

"Thanks," Harry finally said as he grabbed the towel and started to dry his own hair and chest.

"You should get out of your socks too before you catch a cold," Draco said, pointing at the drenched foot wear. The blond left out that he'd only been looking at the other's feet because he had caught himself staring at the brunet's wet and naked chest and had forced himself to look away before Harry could catch him staring or even worse, Draco developed a hard one.

"Hmm," Harry said in agreement as he leaned down to get the socks off.

"Let's see if they're still playing," Draco said as he walked towards the door, wanting to get away from the attractive and still wet boy.

"Yeah," Harry said. Looking down at his trousers, he saw that they were only a little bit wet, mostly near the hem where they'd dipped into the puddles. As Draco hasn't bothered with putting on a new dry shirt, Harry followed after the blond without putting on a shirt of his own either, not wanting to miss more of the game.

"The poor guys are still playing," Draco informed Harry from the window seat.

"I would have thought that Dumbledore would have interfered by now," Harry admitted.

"Me too," Draco answered. "But I wouldn't be surprised if he let them continue with the argument that it will be a good practice for them if they later want to go professional. After all, an international match isn't cancelled or paused just because it's raining cats and dogs."

"Still, I would have thought that Madam Pomfrey would have demanded him to stop the game," Harry said as he settled down beside the blond.

"Unlikely," Draco said. "When the rain got stronger she left the field and went back towards the Hospital Wing. And if her constant head shaking is anything to go by, she was complaining about Dumbledore and how horrible Quidditch in general is," he added his observation of the school nurse leaving the pitch.

"When doesn't she complain about Quidditch? " Harry asked rhetorically with a chuckle, not able to remember one game where she hadn't expressed at least one complaint about the sport he loved.

"Touché," Draco answered dismissively, picking up his Omnioculars again to watch the game, which Harry copied.

Three minutes later Draco asked, "Have you spotted the Snitch?"

"No," was Harry's short answer, as he excitedly watched one of the Hufflepuff Chasers perform a new manoeuvre.

"Hutchins' move was good," Harry commented, after the fifth-year Hufflepuff scored a goal with the help of the new move.

"Hmm," the blond hummed in agreement. "Though I don't think that a Seeker could use it to his advantage."

"With a bit of adjustment it should work," the brunet answered, not saying anything more as he didn't want Slytherin house to find out what he had planned to do with the move he just saw.

After Hufflepuff had scored another four goals, while Ravenclaw could only make one, Harry finally spotted the Snitch which would end the game.

"Found it," he happily exclaimed.

"Where?" Draco asked, not having spotted the golden ball.

"Up in the air, hovering over the field between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw stands," the brunet said, his eyes not leaving the elusive ball.

After searching the air for thirty seconds, Draco still hadn't spotted the ball between the heavy drops of rain. "I give up," he said frustrated, choosing to watch how a water drop fell from the other's hair to his naked chest and slowly ran down the tan chest instead.

Harry risked a fast glimpse in the blond's direction, blushing when he saw that Draco was staring at his naked chest.

Instead of saying something challenging like 'You should know by now that I don't have a Snitch tattoo―or even the Hungarian Horntail tattoo the rumours claim I have―anywhere on my body,' Harry only could think of saying, "Here, I'll show you where it is," and moved closer to the other boy, so that the blond couldn't stare at him anymore.

Harry was now sitting behind Draco, angled a bit to the right side with his bent right leg pressed against the blond's right thigh, while Harry's left leg was standing on the ground as there wasn't enough room for Harry to sit directly behind the blond. Moving his arms around Draco, he placed his hands over Draco's on the Omnioculars so that he could direct Draco's gaze in the direction of the Snitch.

Leaning his head forward so that his chin rested on the blond's right shoulder, his naked chest pressed against Draco's equally naked back, Harry said, "If it hasn't moved, it should be somewhere in this region," whispering directly into the other's ear.

Draco was momentarily distracted by Harry's closeness, the warm breath on his neck, as well as the other's body heat on his back. When he got a grip on himself, he concentrated on the Quidditch pitch once more, trying to find the Snitch. Not finding the Snitch, he moved the Omnioculars a bit, and after he'd moved them to the right and then upwards he finally spotted it.

"Ah, there it is!" he exclaimed joyfully, unknowingly bringing his neck dangerously close to Harry's lips.

The brunet had just taken a breath, taking in Draco's unique smell, when the blond had moved, and out of nowhere, the urge to just lean in and kiss Draco appeared. If he as much as licked his suddenly dry lips, he would actually be licking the blond's neck instead.

"No wonder that the Seekers haven't found it yet," Draco said, unaware of Harry's inner tumult.

All he would have to do was the lean in a bit and he would be kissing the other boy, maybe even going so far as to leave a love bite on the pale neck.

"It's so near the boundary line, and so far away from the actual action that the chance of it being there is so slim that you wouldn't bother to look in that direction. Especially in this weather," Draco chatted on, not bothered by Harry's lack of a comeback.

When Harry had finally succumbed to the siren's call and leaned in to close the gap between them, the blond suddenly moved his head forward to follow the Snitch's movement as the Ravenclaw Seeker had finally spotted it and was chasing after it.

The unexpected movement brought Harry out of his daze. The brunet shook his head to get rid of the notion to kiss the blond, being happy that Draco had moved just in time. He didn't know how he should have explained to Draco why he'd suddenly decided to kiss the other's neck.

"Finally," Draco shouted excitedly when Ravenclaw's Seeker caught the golden ball and ended the game. "I don't want to know how many of them will have a cold tomorrow," he said, moving his head to the side so that he could better see Harry. But instead of the joyous face he expected to see, he was met by the sight of Harry being deep in thought.

With a furrowed brow, the brunet wondered, _The sudden want to kiss Draco must be a sign that my feelings for him aren't brotherly in nature, are they?_

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN: **Please tell me what you think about this chapter.

**Next: **A short interlude chapter starring Neville, as I still have some exams to pass, and thus not enough time for writing long chapters. The previously mentioned potion brewing will take place in a later chapter.


	30. Ch 29 Neville the Golden Trio's love

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**___, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes and kinks, swearing

**Beta: **The wonderful Platinum

**AN: **The promised interlude. The title says it all. And as the last interlude with Professor Essentjelly was well liked, I added a little bonus scene between him and Severus. So enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 29 – Neville - the Golden Trio's love therapist-~-~-**

Neville couldn't deny that he had had a very interesting and unusual week. Not because Professor Sprout had offered him an apprenticeship with her, with the option to take over her position when she planned to retire in about five years. No, Neville's week had been made interesting and surreal due to the Golden Trio.

A day after Halloween, Ron came to his room two hours after dinner asking him if he had some time to talk.

While Neville already suspected from the look on Ron's face that the red-head wanted to talk about Hermione, Neville wouldn't be Neville if he didn't say "Yes" even though he wasn't really in the mood to listen to Ron talking about Hermione. Ron surprised him though. Instead of complaining how much he wished the school year to be over so that he and Hermione could get back together, the red-head confined in him that he feared that he and Hermione may only see each other as siblings.

"How come?" Neville couldn't help but ask out of curiosity.

Letting himself fall down on Neville's bed, his legs hanging down the edge of the bed, eyes staring looking at the red canopy, Ron said, "I've been thinking about Harry and Ginny's failed relationship, and when I followed your advice and talked to her about it, she told me how she'd realised that what she felt for Harry was only a brotherly love and not romantic in nature. So, this made me wonder about myself and Hermione," he told Neville.

"But opposed to what Ginny described, kissing her doesn't feel wrong or awkward," the youngest Weasley son described. "So, I dismissed the thought again. But when I saw her together with Zabini this afternoon, I couldn't help but wonder if _she's _the one who only sees me as a brother," Ron admitted to Neville.

"And why do you think so?" the brunet probed. He couldn't imagine that Hermione would be so cruel as to kiss Zabini in front of Ron, especially since she didn't even hold hands with him in public or any of the other things couples do.

"We were all sitting with Malfoy and Harry in their living room, talking. Of course, somewhere along the lines we talked about school and Hermione got into one of her rants about how important this year is with the NEWTs and all.

"So, imagine my surprise when all Zabini had to do to stop her rant was to put his hand on her left shoulder, and she stopped. When Harry or I would do this, she'd just accuse us of not taking her seriously," Ron informed the other boy about what happened in Room Zero.

"Really?" Neville asked, astonished. He had witnessed enough of the Head Girl's speeches to know that it was near to impossible to stop her once she started.

"Yeah," Ron confirmed. "And as I know that she regards Harry as a brother, I can't help but to assume that for Zabini to be able to interrupt her, she must have romantic feelings for him, while I'm nothing more than a brother in her eyes," Ron said sighing, covering his eyes with his right forearm.

It was obvious to Neville that while Ron seemed to have accepted that Hermione had broken up with him and most likely wouldn't get together with him again, the thought that he'd been together with someone who only saw him as a brother bothered him.

_Hermione and Blaise don't create the impression that they're in love,_ Neville thought, thinking back about all the times he'd spend in the company of the two. _To me, they look more like two adults who are good friends and are mature enough and so academically inclined that they would regard their Altair work as nothing more than an assignment. And maybe have some fun in-between,_ he thought, easily remembering all the times Blaise made one of his innuendos.

So, Neville advised Ron that he should just talk to Hermione and ask her about his suspicion. Assuring him that he believed that Ron was wrong and they had just didn't work out like any other couple and are nothing like Ginny and Harry.

To cheer up Ron, Neville rhetorically asked, "When does Harry do anything normal?"

As Neville's latest advice regarding Harry and Ginny's break up had worked out, Ron was secure that this one would work out too. So, with a smile on his face, in a general good mood and a bit hungry, Ron left the room. He needed to find a way to bring up the topic with Hermione.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Neville was surprised and also a bit overwhelmed when not even a day later the next one of the Golden Trio seeked out his advice with their love problems.

The brunet boy was just coming back from a late lunch, having spent the morning working in one of the greenhouses, when Hermione approached him in the Gryffindor common room wondering if they could talk.

At first Neville had assumed that Hermione wanted to have a word with him because of the advice he gave Ron the previous night, and assumed that Hermione was angry with him for telling Ron to ask her if she saw him as a brother. Or maybe Ron had overreacted and she blamed him? So, a bit anxious, Neville led her through the boys' dorm towards the Altair common room, and then up the stairs.

"I don't know if Ron's here to let you in," Neville said to Hermione when they stood in front of the door to his and Ron's rooms.

Entering the hallway, he called out, "Ron, are you here?"

"Yes," came the red-head's reply.

"Could you please let me in?" Hermione called from the doorway.

"Of, course. Come on in, Hermione," Ron called back, giving his permission for his friend to enter.

While it was well and good that the Altair room were protected against trespassing, and therefore protected the inhabitants' privacy regarding the Altair electives, after a while it got really annoying that you had to invite your friends into your rooms every time and also needed your room mate to do the same.

"Thank you, Ron" Hermione said as she passed him and entered Neville's room.

Ron was surprised by this. He'd assumed that she wanted to talk with him and not with Neville. Thinking that they probably wanted to talk about Herbology, he dismissed Hermione's behaviour with a shrug and closed the door to his room. He still had to work out a way to bring up the sisterly feelings dilemma.

"So, what's the matter?" Neville asked gingerly, after he sat down on his bed and Hermione made herself comfortable on his chair.

"I'm unsure if I'm in love with someone," Hermione said, fiddling with her hands and taking Neville by surprised.

"Not that I mind or anything, but why aren't you talking with Harry or Ginny about it?" Neville asked. He couldn't understand that she wouldn't talk with any of her two close friends about it instead of going to him.

"Because Ginny doesn't know about the Altair electives, which are part of the problem, and Harry has other things on his mind right now, so I don't want to trouble him with my own problems."

"Am I right to assume that it is Blaise you may be in love with?" Neville asked after neither of them said a word for a while.

"Yes," Hermione answered in a low voice. "The Altair electives made it obvious, didn't they?" she added rhetorically.

"Yes, they did," was the last thing Neville said before Hermione started a little rant.

"You have to know that over the last two months a got to know Blaise very well, with living together and sharing a room and all that. And so, we of course spend a lot of time together, talking about different things: starting with school work and our plans for the future, to things like our childhood and wizarding politics. And I now feel like I can talk with him about anything.

"We also found out that we have a lot in common. For example we both are interested in travelling and love to read Andrew Lang," she listed. "Oh, and he makes me laugh and doesn't mind to have an academic talk once in a while; although, I really do hate all of his innuendos.

"I won't deny though that he's good in the sack," Hermione said, finished her rant as if Blaise being a good lover gave him the freedom to make all of his Head Girl jokes.

And Neville couldn't help it; he had to interrupt before she went into the details. So, he said to her "Too much information, Hermione."

This made the witch blush, saying a sheepishly, "Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts."

"Yes, you did," Neville answered calmly.

"Anyway," Hermione began, "when I signed up for the Altair electives I expected to become friends with my partner not to end up falling in love with him. I mean, the main reason why I had ended the previous relationship with Ron was that I did not want to betray him by sleeping with someone else."

_At least I seem to have guessed correctly that she didn't break up with Ron because she saw him as only a brother,_ he thought when he heard the last part. Though, out loud he only said "Hmm."

"On the first night, Blaise and I had a talk and he agreed with me that what we're doing was only academic in nature, and maybe we could have some fun in between as friends-with-benefits, so we were on the same page then.

"And now I fear that I may feel something more with him, but on the same time I don't feel the butterflies in my stomach I had when I got together with Ron, so I don't know if I'm really in love or only thinking that I'm in love because of all the intimate things we do together," Hermione informed him of her fears and doubts.

"Hmm, that's really complicated, Hermione," Neville said calmly. "I don't know Blaise well, and don't even want to pretend that I know what having an Altair partner means, but from what you said about the missing butterflies, I get the feeling that you only love him as a good friend and nothing more."

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked, forcing Neville to elaborate his thoughts.

"I'm not you, so I can't tell you what you feel, but what I saw makes me believe that you're not in love with him. I mean when you two are together in the common room, you don't make doe eyes at him, you just talk and look with him like it was Harry. Also, with you two needing to be intimate," here Neville blushed as he said the words, "I would assume that you would want to touch him more, like touching his arm, moving his hair out of his eyes. But you don't do any of it."

"That's true," Hermione said. "I haven't thought about all the small gestures two people in love would share." _And thinking about it, I don't feel the need to kiss Blaise or hold hands with him like I did with Ron __or__ Viktor_, Hermione mused.

"I only though about all the sexual things," she admitted.

"Knowing you, I wouldn't be surprised if you told yourself that you must like what you do with him behind close doors because you really want to learn Sexual Magic and for this you can't be shy or afraid," Neville told her.

Hermione laughed. "Not that I would need to talk myself into liking Blaise bedroom skills, but your close enough. I started with the knowledge that he and I would have to become very close. And it seems like the whole situation just caught up with me," she said with another short nervous-relieved laugh. "I mean who would sleep with someone regularly if they don't love or at least like each other?" she asked.

Neville had to laugh at that question. "Seriously, Hermione. How many teenage boys do you thing would say no to a good regular shag? No strings attached and all," Neville commented.

"Okay, I see what you mean," she gave in with a laugh, getting up from the chair and walking over to him.

"Thank you, Neville" she said, giving him a hug.

"No problem," he answered. "You already knew the answer or you wouldn't have doubted that you loved him. So you'd figured it out on your own soon enough," he added. _Everything she really had need was to voice her thoughts out loud,_ he thought.

"Maybe, maybe not," she said, opening the door.

"And Hermione, do me the favour and talk to Ron. He needs to know that you don't see him as a brother," he said, hoping that he could help out his room mate.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

After Ron and Hermione went to him for advise with their love troubles, Neville wasn't as surprised as he could have been when the last member of the Golden Trio also approached him with his insecurities regrading Draco a week after Hermione.

"Hey, Neville, do you have a moment?" Harry asked him in the Entrance Hall as he was on the way to Greenhouse two.

"I was just on my way to Greenhouse two, but if you want to, we can talk on the way," Neville suggested.

"Alright," Harry agreed and together they walked out of the Entrance Hall.

"So, what do want?" Neville asked.

"Ehm," Harry stammered, not knowing where to begin, even though he had thought about how he should address the problem as he'd walked down from the tower to the ground floor. "You remember yesterday's Quidditch match?" he finally asked.

"Of course," Neville answered. "The ground is still soaking wet from all the rain," he said as they walked through the mud.

"Yeah," Harry agreed sheepishly. "Anyway, sometime after you, I left the stands to watch the game from my living room as it oversees the pitch," he explained to Neville, who hadn't yet visited Room Zero. "And as Draco and I were watching the game, I suddenly wanted to kiss him," he finished, revealing his problem.

Neville didn't say anything as he opened the door of Greenhouse two. He didn't see what Harry's problem was. He and Draco were Altair partners so kissing shouldn't be a big deal for them. Therefore, Neville waited for Harry to say more and finally reveal what troubled him, but Harry stayed mute.

After another moment of silence, Neville remembered Hermione's dilemma and he suspected that Harry may have the polar opposite dilemma. Instead of falsely assuming the Draco was more than a friend, Harry may feel more than friendship for the blond but didn't want to admit it. This would explain while Harry stopped talking after mentioning the urge to kiss the other boy.

"And have you?" Neville finally asked. He didn't know how else he should approach the topic he believed was the problem without saying something that could offend Harry.

"No," Harry answered quickly. Too quickly.

"And why not?" Neville probed. Harry's reaction had just proved that his previous assumption had been right, and that Harry didn't want to admit to himself that he felt more than friendship for Malfoy.

"Because it wouldn't be right," he answered, though it sounded more like a question, as if Harry himself did doubt it. "I mean we're just Altair partners and good friends," he stated

"Well, I'm not you so I cannot tell you how you feel about him, but I have a feeling that you feel more than just friendship for him," Neville said in a calm, non-offending voice.

"I don't know," Harry muttered, the other boy barely able to hear him. "I mean, how do I even know if I see him as more than a friend?" he asked shyly, but in a clearer voice.

"Maybe you could try to compare him to Hermione and Ron?" the other boy suggested, as he started to gather the tools he would need.

At Harry's questioning look, Neville elaborated, "I mean just ask yourself some questions and compare what the answer would be for Draco and Hermione. For example you could ask..." here Neville made a short pause to come up with a good example before he continued. "You could ask yourself if you would want to give both of them a kiss on the cheek and then ask if you would also want to have a full make out session with either of them."

While Harry got excited at the thought of snogging the blond, he couldn't imagine snogging Hermione. It would be weird and just 'Eek', even though he knew that Hermione was a young and attractive woman.

But there was still the Ginny problem, so Harry asked, "How do I know that I'm not making the same mistake I made with Ginny and mix up brotherly love with romantic love?"

"You don't. But really, Harry, if you ask me, I doubt that what you feel for Malfoy is a brotherly love," Neville said, having finally gather everything he would need for his task of replanting.

As Harry didn't say anything in return, Neville saw the need to elaborate, "Oh, come on, Harry. Do you really believe that after all the fights you had since first year; he can just be a brother to you? Dean even said that now, where you're Altair partners, you'll finally be able to resolve all the sexual tension between you two without having to resolve to duelling and trading insults."

Harry turned a bright red when he heard what Dean had said about him and Draco. But at least it did help to bring Neville's point across to him.

"Besides," Neville added, "did you ever have the urge to do more than just kiss Ginny?"

"No," he admitted.

"See," Neville said, "that's where the line between brotherly and romantic love lies."

Harry nodded in acknowledgement. What Neville had just said was so simple, it had to be true.

"Thank you, Neville," Harry said, giving the other boy a pat on his shoulder in thanks and then left the greenhouse.

To tell the truth, Neville was relieved that he'd spontaneously come up with this universal boundary after he asked the question about doing more than kissing Ginny. Hoping that everything would go smoothly for Harry, Neville finally started his task of replanting.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Sunday, 9th November 1997, Severus Snape's private quarters**

"For the last time, Silas. No!" Severus yelled out, annoyed at his old Potions mastership apprentice partner, turned Sexual Potions professor.

"Oh, come on, Severus," Professor Essentjelly tried once again to persuade the Potions master to brew the Zët potion with him. "We've brewed the Lloj Potion together without a problem. So, why don't you want to help me brew the Zët Potion?" he asked.

"Maybe because, opposed to the Lloj Potion, the Zët Potion is a real pain in the ass?" Severus answered in a sarcastic voice.

"But for someone with your abilities and talent, brewing the potion should be a walk in the park," Silas countered, his patience running short.

"Oh, I wasn't talking of it figuratively being a pain in the ass. It's literally a pain in the ass. But of course, you tops wouldn't know about it," he said, clearly remembering how he felt after the one time he had sex with Sirius Black. _Than__k__, Salazar that his brother Regulus was more sensitive to how I felt, _he thought.

"Now you're being ridiculous. We both know that I very well care about my bottoms' well-being, or we wouldn't have been partners for three years," Professor Essentjelly countered.

"Really?" Snape questioned. "If you really did care about the bottom's well-being, you wouldn't be asking _me_ to brew it with you this Friday of all times. Rolanda just caught a bad case of the **Feloidea flu***. It takes between four to seven days before the person can speak again, so it's uncertain if she'll be able to referee Saturday's Quidditch match. And I'm sure as hell not in the mood to substitute for her a day after having brewed the Zët Potion," he beat his colleague with his words.

"For all I cared we could brew it now or on Sunday, but we both know that the Zët Potion can only be brewed correctly on a full moon night," Essentjelly pointed out.

"Then you should have asked me last month," was Severus sharp answer.

"Because I could have foreseen that Rolanda would get ill this month?" Silas snapped back.

Silence.

Taking a calming breath, Silas tried to let go of his pent up frustration. Quarrelling with Severus wouldn't do him any good, and yelling and snapping at each other wouldn't get them anywhere.

Sitting down on one of the armchairs in Severus' living room, Silas tried again to get Severus to be his brewing partner. "You know with you being the Head of Slytherin house, Minerva could accuse you to be partial, and demand another referee."

Severus gave only a slight nod in acknowledgement to this claim.

"Didn't Andrew play Quidditch in school? Maybe he could referee for you?" Silas asked, referring to the Enchanting teacher.

"He did," was Snape's short answer.

"See, problem solved. And if you're really afraid of being a bit sore for a day, I'll sponsor you a tube of **Miplo's Soothing Balm***," Silas tried to bait Snape.

"Or you could just try your luck with Isabelle," Severus countered, wanting Silas to bother the Ritual Magic teacher instead. "Don't you have a weak spot for blonde French women, anyway?"

Seeing that he wouldn't get through to Severus this evening, Professor Essentjelly gave up for the night. He would have to try his luck again another time. If he was lucky, Rolanda would get released from the Hospital Wing on Friday morning and Severus wouldn't have an excuse any longer...

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Feloidea flu: **Feloidea means catlike. I needed something better than the Muggle flu which should be easy to cure for wizards. So I came up with this magical flu in reference to the saying "Cat got your tongue".

**Miplo's Soothing Balm: **An expensive balm I'd made up which does wonders against soreness in certain places ;)

**Isabelle Immaculé:** Isabelle means untouched and immaculé means pure. So the meanings fit together and the first and last names also have the same initials like JKR prefers to name her characters.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN:** So, if you've been wondering how Professor Essentjelly produced the demonstration potions for his classes, you now know how. ;)

**Next: **The boys brewing the Zët Potion. I hope you don't mind the delay of the lemon, but with exams, I only have the time to write short chapters. And keep in mind that it's Gryffindor who will be playing against Slytherin a day after the boys brew the potion which is "a pain in the ass" as Severus called it...


	31. Chapter 30 And the winner is

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes and a special kind of 'foreplay'.

**Beta: **Platinum**  
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**AN: **Sorry for the long waiting time. RL kept me busy.

**Thank you all** for over 250 reviews and favourites, as well as the 500+ followings. They make me very happy. :D

_This chapter is dedicated to Elza_. Thank you for all the lovely talks. :) I hope you enjoy the fighting for top scene.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 30 – And the winner is...-~-~-**

**Saturday, 15 November 1997, Great Hall**

Today was the day. The day everyone had waited for since the start of the new school year. The day of the infamous Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. And he, the well trusted and loved Seeker, the one his house mates counted on to win the game, was sitting at his house table eating breakfast while his sore ass hurt like hell.

_Why again __did__ I end up bottoming when we brewed the Zët Potion yesterday?_ he asked himself as he glared at his rival Seeker who was to blame for his soreness. But then, he was the one who had allowed himself to be tricked into submitting by a simple Slytherin tactic. And he had been _so__o_ close to topping. Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, he took a bite of his toast before he got lost in his memories of the previous day.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Flashback**

**Friday, 14th November 1997, Great Hall, lunch break**

"Have you heard?" Ron asked when he sat down at the Gryffindor table. "Slytherin's new Seeker Gind has been in an accident during Herbology and now he has to stay in the Hospital Wing until Sunday. So, catching the Snitch should be easy for you," the red-head said joyfully as he took a bite of his ham sandwich.

"I actually would prefer it if he could play tomorrow," Harry complained, before he finished the last bit of his cheese sandwich. "Now, I'll have to play against Draco," he added with a sigh, speaking more to himself than to his friend.

"Afraid that you will embarrass yourself, Potter?" Draco, who had walked by and overheard their talk, asked to rile Harry up.

"You wish, Malfoy," the brunet answered out of habit.

"In your stead, I wouldn't be so sure of yourself," replied Draco. Then the blond leaned closer and whispered into Harry's ear, "After all, I'm sure that a sore ass will drastically decrease your chances of winning." With his mission accomplished, he walked towards the Slytherin table and smirked when he saw Harry's reaction.

When he heard his Altair partner's words, Harry had groaned and then buried his head in his crossed arms, losing any hope that he would be able to talk Draco into bottoming when they would brew the Zët Potion this evening.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

It was a quarter after two when Draco entered the living room of Room Zero. While the Head Boy had been busy solving equations in Arithmancy, Harry had been busy thinking about a way to trick the blond into taking the role of the bottom.

_It just had to be my luck that the day after we have to brew the Zët Potion, Gryffindor is playing against Slytherin. And if that isn't enough, the Slytherin Seeker had to get into an accident so that Draco has to substitute for him, _Harry ranted in his thoughts, unaware that Draco was already back from his lesson.

_Really, why again did they decide that this year the first Quidditch match was Hufflepuff against Ravenclaw instead of the usual Slytherin-Gryffindor match?_ Harry wondered, not realising that he had voiced his thought out loud.

Therefore, he was shocked when Draco answered his question. "My theory is that the other houses have more Quidditch players who take Altair subjects, or maybe Sexual Potions in particular."

"You spooked me," Harry said, once his racing heart calmed down again.

"Sorry," the blond answered, more out of politeness rather than him really being sorry about having startled the other boy.

Harry accepted the apology with an absent hum, before he thought about what Draco had said.

_Gryffindor has only three seventh-year players, and only Dean and I take Sexual Magic. Slytherin has Goyle, Crabbe and Blaise. So, Slytherin and Gryffindor together have three players who signed up for Altair electives,_ Harry mused. _And while I don't know who in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff take Altair electives, with their teams mostly consisting of seventh-years, they should easily have around six people who are in Sexual Potions. So Draco's theory could be right,_ the brunet concluded.

"Though, I wonder why they could not just have moved the game to next week or the previous weekend if they bothered to change the first match of the season just because the other two houses have probably more players who take Sexual Potions," Harry complained to Draco.

"Maybe you could ask the headmaster about it?" the blond suggested. "I'm sure that if you ask, Dumbledore will do as Gryffindor's Golden Boy wishes," he joked.

"If Madam Hooch hadn't been discharged this morning, I would have tried," the brunet answered, joking along. "Besides, I though _you're_ the expert in postponing Quidditch matches," Harry countered, remembering what happened during their third year.

"Ah, but I'm not the one who will have a sore ass tomorrow, am I?" Draco said with a big, smug smirk, letting himself fall down in his armchair, giving the perfect image of not having a care in the world.

"You know what I've been wondering about?" Harry asked tenderly. Now that Draco had opened the can of worms, so to speak, by mentioning the soreness Harry wanted to avoid, the brunet thought that it was high time he tried out his plan to make Draco the bottom during the brewing process.

"What?" Draco asked, unaware that he was slowly, but surely, walking into Harry's trap.

"In our textbook it is mentioned that the inventor designed the Zët Potion for two dominant brewing partners who fight for the top position during the brewing process," Harry began and saw that Draco nodded in acknowledgement to what had just been said. "So," the brunet began to lay the metaphorical rope around Draco's neck, "shouldn't the potion be stronger if we really fight for the top position?" he asked.

"I mean, your ancestor Thothus was right when he said that our bond would be stronger if we slept together for the first time on our own terms. So, we shouldn't it be true too for brewing Sexual Potions?" Harry asked, mentally closing the rope around the blond's neck, successfully having trapped the other boy.

Draco had to admit that Harry had him there. He really couldn't deny that what the other had said made sense. But to risk his top position for a stronger potion? No, he didn't think so. Therefore, he answered, "While your theory sounds good, I believe that our Typos Thesis already established our positions. After all, _I'm_ the main top and dominant while you're only slightly dominant."

"Afraid that you will lose?" Harry goaded, not wanting to lose the opportunity to top.

"Of course not," Draco replied automatically without thinking, just like Harry had during lunch. After all, six years of habits were hard to break, even after two months of friendship.

"So, why don't we fight it out for real?" Harry asked. He _so_ had Draco now.

"What do you have in mind?" Draco asked with a sigh, resigned to his fate as he slumped down even lower in his armchair. He did not look so at ease anymore.

While it may seem to Draco that Harry had only mentioned Thothus to get out of bottoming, the brunet really had thought about what kind of fight would be best for boosting the effectiveness of the Zët Potion.

During the brewing process, the scripted fight for the top position was very physical in nature, so Harry thought that a simple magical duel would be out of the question. The same could be said for playing a Seeker's game or something else which didn't involve much direct body contact.

Therefore, Harry risked ending up bottoming anyway when he suggested, "How about we have a little hand-to-hand fight. The one who successfully holds the other down for ten seconds gets to top."

Draco thought about the suggestion. He and Harry were around the same height and weight, so they were equally matched in those departments. What Harry didn't know though, was that Draco had taken some martial arts lessons before he came to Hogwarts. And while the blond was a bit rusty, he still remembered enough moves to be confident that he would be able to pin down the brunet easily enough.

Draco, on the other hand, didn't know that Harry had plenty of experience in how to avoid being held down during a hand-to-hand fight, thanks to his cousin Dudley. Thus the two boys had an equal chance to win, even though both assumed to have an advantage over the other because of their pre-Hogwarts time.

"You know what?" Draco asked rhetorically. "How about we spice it up a bit?" he suggested, suddenly having been struck by an idea.

"What do you have in mind?" Harry repeated the blond's earlier question cautiously. There were so many things Harry could think of how Draco could 'spice it up'. It could mean that the blond wanted to higher the stakes by demanding that the loser had to prepare all the nasty ingredients of the Potion or even going as far as having to forfeit catching the Snitch tomorrow. So, Harry was really surprised when he heard the blond's suggestion.

"The brewing of the Zët Potion begins with both of us being naked," Draco said, to which Harry nodded. "So I wonder, if we follow your lead about my ancestor's theory of doing things on our own terms, if we shouldn't include the undressing part into our hand-to-hand fight," the blond said.

When Harry didn't answer, Draco expressed his thoughts a bit more in detail. "It's just a feeling, but to me it feels like there is a part missing in the brewing process. And even if this isn't Ritual Magic, I wouldn't be surprised if the way one disrobes can actually influence the potential of the potion. Besides, we're supposed to fight for dominance which can also be expressed by the amount of clothing we're wearing," Draco explained.

"Hmm," Harry said as he thought about what Draco just said. After a minute he came to the conclusion that the blond was on the right track and voiced his agreement to add that they also needed to completely undress the other before they could start counting to ten.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

While Harry initially had planned to have the hand-to-hand fight in the afternoon, Draco's suggestion of undressing each other during the quarrel forced them to postpone the fight to right before they would start brewing so that there would be a seamless transition between the hand-to-hand fight and the brewing process.

An hour ago Harry had cooked an early and light dinner for them both. And now at half past six, they thought that it was late enough to start the brewing as the full moon had been up in the sky since around five in the afternoon.

"Where should we have the fight?" Harry asked.

"The bedroom would be the best choice as we'll be brewing in there," Draco answered. "Though, we would have to avoid getting onto the bed as it would just vanish our clothes," he admonished.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to spill any ingredients either," Harry added. "Maybe the Ritual Magic room?" he suggested.

"Hmm," Draco said in contemplation as they both walked into their bedroom. Going over to the door which led to the Ritual Magic room, the blond opened it to gauge its usefulness.

Both boys were surprised when instead of the usual stone floor they were greeted by the sight of thin mats covering the floor. "I think this decides it," Draco said matter-of-factly. Harry just nodded in agreement. What place was better suited for their fight than a wide and open place padded with mats?

"Ready?" Draco asked Harry as they got into position for their hand-to-hand fight. As previously agreed, they were both only wearing three items of clothing: a pullover, as well as their trousers and briefs. At the last minute, Draco had been able to add a forth, decorative item to the list: a belt. While it could be easily taken off in one go with the trousers, the blond hoped that the fumbling it usually took to open the belt-buckle would give him an advantage.

His precise back-up plan was that in the case that Harry would somehow be able to pin him down, the brunet would foolishly use both hands to open the belt-buckle, therefore creating an opening for the blond to get on top again. He himself planned to avoid just this situation by only taking Harry's pullover off half-way. This way, he could use the clothing to trap/cuff Harry's hands while he worked on the brunet's belt-buckle.

Opposed to Draco's typical scheming Slytherin plan, Harry's plan screamed Gryffindor. Harry's idea was simple; just get off Draco's clothes as fast as possible and then try to hold him down somehow. Taking a calming breath, Harry answered Draco's enquiry with a simple "Ready".

"On three," the blond said and then they counted together.

"One." Draco raised an eyebrow to goad the other boy.

"Two," they went on and Harry answered the blond's challenge with a slight raise of his head.

"Three," they called out and Harry charged.

He quickly moved forward, closing the distance between them in only two steps and immediately took hold of Draco's pullover. And while Draco had expected just this move from Harry and even helped to get off his pullover, the blond hadn't expected that Harry would have the presence of mind to make use of his short-lived blindness to trip him.

Hitting the ground with his back, the blond let out a short groan of pain. Harry made use of this short distraction to sit down on the other's chest as he yank at the pullover one last time with his left hand, while his right hand took a secure hold of Draco's wrists, pinning them above the blond's head.

After swiftly throwing away the pullover, Harry moved his body slightly so that his left hand had a better access to Draco's belt, his right hand not letting go of the other's wrists as he leaned his full weight over Draco's upper body.

_Shit,_ Draco swore in his mind. This was not going according to plan. He had envisioned to attack Harry just as the brunet was throwing away his pullover while they both were still standing. And now, he could not even fall back on his back-up plan as Harry was expertly opening his belt-buckle with only one hand, as if he did it on a daily basis. If he didn't want to lose, he would have to get out of this situation and fast.

The chance Draco had waited for came when Harry was shoving down his trousers and briefs in one go. Because of Harry's position on his chest, the brunet could only move the clothing as far as Draco's knees. If Harry wanted to completely throw off the trousers and briefs, he would have to turn around completely. But for this, he would have to let go of Draco's wrists first.

In his haste, the brunet didn't think of using his much longer legs to remove the trousers. Therefore, he foolishly raised his upper body up, moved around so that his back was facing the blond's head, having to let go of the wrists at the same time and leaned forward to grab the trousers with both hands.

Draco didn't hesitate to use the opening to reverse their positions. Because Harry was leaning forwards, his weight was not pinning down Draco's upper body any longer. Thus, Draco could quickly sit up, lean over Harry and grab the back of Harry's pullover and move it half-way up, just as he had planned to do all along. Now it was Draco who had the upper hand, even though Harry had been able to completely pull off his trousers and briefs at the last moment.

The blond's legs were clasped around Harry's, immobilising them. Draco rested his whole weight on Harry as he pressed him down on the floor and then knotted the ends of the pullover's sleeves together as an additional secure measure.

_Harry won't get free this easily,_ Draco though smugly as took a liberating breath, inhaling the smell of victory and of Harry's freshly washed hair.

"Don't be cheesed off, Harry. You would have bottomed anyway," Draco said gleefully. It was a good feeling to press Harry against the floor, to be in complete control of the situation.

What bothered the blond though, was that they were facing the same direction. While the position of his knees on the mats gave him enough room to get his right hand under Harry's body to open the belt-buckle, he would be forced to let go of Harry's legs if he wanted to completely remove the trousers and briefs.

The other option Draco had was to try the move he had learned during his material arts lessons, where he would roll both of them to their sides. From this position, he would have to let go of Harry's legs, as well as to change the grip on the other's wrists to sit down on Harry's stomach. If he was fast enough, Harry wouldn't have a chance to react. But if he only hesitated for a moment, Harry would be able to turn the tables once again.

When he finally opened the belt-buckle, he decided that he would take the risk of moving them into an other position. _Really, what can Harry do with his arms bound and being blinded by his own pullover?_ Draco asked himself as he rearranged their position so that they were now lying on their sides.

Quickly, Draco moved to change their positions once again. He let out a relieved sigh when he had been able to move fast enough to keep Harry under his control. Leisurely sitting on Harry's stomach, Draco first used his right hand, and then his feet to pull off the brunet's trousers and briefs. Now, the only things he needed to do was to finally completely take off Harry's pullover and to hold him down for ten more seconds.

Harry hadn't idly lain on the ground while Draco was undressing him. He had struggled to get free, but Draco had such a sure grip on him that he could barely move. _Come on, Harry,_ he incited himself to come up with a way out of this situation. _Your team is counting on you to win the game for them._

When Draco leaned slightly forward to take off the pullover, their naked cocks brushed against each other, sending an arousing pulse through their bodies. And suddenly Harry had an inspiration how he may could get out of bottoming after all.

Closing his eyes, the brunet imagined a snake standing in front of him and then spoke in Parseltongue. _"Oh, I really hope that I'm right and you're turned on by Parseltongue so that I can distract you,"_ he said as Draco tossed the pullover away from them.

The twitch of Draco's cock he felt against his own penis encouraged him to continue, even though Draco's right hand was still holding his wrists together, while the blond's left hand was braced on the ground for stability.

"One," Draco said in a clear voice.

"_Come on, Draco," _Harry hissed. _"Get distracted by my hissing,"_ he prayed aloud as the blond reached "Four" in his counting.

"_Ah, Draco,"_ Harry screamed out in desperation and noticed with relief how Draco's "Five" sounded rather breathless and something wet touched his balls. The wetness could only be Draco's pre-cum, but Harry had no time to think more about this as Draco was still counting.

"Six," the blond said, breathlessly.

While Harry was getting somewhere with the hissing, time was running out for him. If he still wanted to top during the brewing, he had to move now. Harry twisted his body to lie on only his right shoulder, a move Draco should have recognised from his material arts lessons as a sight for an incoming attack. But the blond was to busy to keep himself under control to notice the slight change in Harry's position.

_Just another four seconds!_ Draco motivated himself, counting, "Seven."

Harry finally opened his eyes to be in a better position for his last attack and at the same time hoped that he would still be speaking in Parseltongue, he hissed out, _"Please, Draco, submit!" _

Looking into Draco's beautiful grey eyes, he saw how the blond's breath caught and he jerked at his hands, while at the same time he quickly pushed with his right foot to shove his body out from under Draco's. Harry's body was now lying on its side, forming a 'C', and he quickly threw his left leg over Draco's ass, before the rest of his body followed. Now he was straddling the blond, his naked chest pressed against Draco's equally naked back.

Leaning his head over the blond's right shoulder, he began his own counting, whispering into Draco's ear, _"One."_

"_Two," _Harry continued, his mind still in Parseltongue mode.

Draco didn't know what to do. He had been _so_ close to making Harry submit, but then his body had to betray him, and get distracted by the arousing hissing. For all he knew, Harry had been calling him a whore or something worse, though he suspected that the brunet was now counting the seconds and was just unconsciously still speaking in Parseltongue. Still, he wouldn't give up! He began to wiggle against Harry's hold, hating and loving it at the same time that the friction his movements created coupled with the Parseltongue whispers, Harry's breath on his ear and the feeling of the other's body pressed snugly against him turned him on even more.

By the time Harry reached "Five," Draco had given up the fight as he saw no way to get out of Harry's hold and let himself get lost in his arousal.

And only when Harry reached "_Eight_," did the brunet realise that his hard cock was lying between Draco's ass cheeks, smearing pre-cum all over it as Draco's body moved with his struggles. Though it was unclear to Harry whether Draco was wiggling because he still wanted to somehow throw Harry off, or because he was so aroused by the Parseltongue that he was in desperate need for some friction.

Before he could get distracted himself, Harry shoved the feelings he felt due to their current position to the back of his mind and forced himself to concentrate purely on counting.

"_Nine...Ten,"_ he finished, sounding relieved that it was over.

With the end of the counting, reality came back to Harry. Quick as lightning, he sprung off of Draco, looking awkwardly at his feet. But quickly he moved his gaze to the wall as not only his feet but also his aroused penis greeted his field of vision.

Draco took longer to come out of his arousal induced daze. With a groan, he came back to reality, not knowing if he should hate that he had only been a hair's breadth away from orgasm, or if he should be happy that he hadn't come after all.

Getting up, Draco was glad to notice that Harry's cock was still hard and its tip wet. At least he hadn't been the only one who had been this turned on by their little hand-to-hand fight.

"You're playing dirty," Draco accused, complaining about the used Parseltongue.

"As the team captain, I have to make sure that my team has the best chances of winning," Harry explained to the wall. "Besides, I hadn't even been sure if the dark violet colour of your Lloj Potion also stood for a Parseltongue kink. But as I didn't have anything to lose, I thought I could at least try."

"I understand," Draco said emphatically, stopping Harry's rant. He knew why Harry did it. Really, what bothered him more was that Harry had been able to get the better of him _twice_ during their fight. Shoving his own frustration aside for now, the blond tried to lighten the mood again with saying, "Come on, the sooner we start brewing, the sooner we'll get some relief," he said, boldly giving Harry's hard cock a stroke.

_At least I'm still able to get Harry's attention and make him blush a nice shade of red, _Draco thought as he walked into the bedroom where they would soon start the actual brewing of the Zët Potion.

**End Flashback**

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

_I really hate that he got me to bottom,_ was Draco's final thought as he got out of his memory from the previous evening.

With a sigh, Draco got up from the bench. He really hated that Harry had out-Slytherined him by using his kink for Parseltongue against him.

"Mr Malfoy," his Head of House called him.

"Yes, sir?" Draco enquired.

"If you would please follow me to my office," Severus asked.

With a nod and an "Of course," he dutifully went with Professor Snape down to the dungeons.

"You know, Draco," Severus began once they reached his office, "I would have thought that you would be Slytherin enough to realise that bottoming while brewing the Zët Potion a day before the game against Gryffindor isn't in your best interest."

While Draco would have loved to say that he had realised that and had just been tricked into being the bottom, he knew that Severus would only berate him more for having been outsmarted by Harry Potter of all people. So, Draco wisely decided to stay still.

"But as it can't be helped that Gind is in the Hospital Wing, here you go," Professor Snape said, handling the blond a small pot which was even smaller than Draco's ink pot.

Holding it up to eye-level, Draco saw that it was a pot of Miplo's Soothing Balm. Hoping that his guess was correct and that the soothing was meant for his ass, Draco dutifully said, "Thank you."

"If you're the bottom in your partnership, I'd advice you to order your own pot of this soon," Severus advised. "And now go and apply the cream so that it can do its work before the game starts in an hour," he added, dismissing his godson.

Quickly Draco left the office and went to the next bathroom. Closing the stall door after him, he opened the small pot. Peeking inside he saw that it was already half-empty, but what was left should be enough for today. After putting the pot on the closed toilet seat, Draco opened his pants and slid them down over his hips together with his briefs so that he could apply the cream.

It felt really weird to stand half-naked in a dingy bathroom stall, spreading his ass cheeks apart with one hand, while the other hand was busy scooping up the brownish-grey cream and massaging it into the sore tissue of his rectum. _At least the cream doesn't have a penetrating smell, __unlike the thing Muggles apply when they have a cold which can be smelled from miles away, _he thought, thanking Merlin for small mercies.

_Knowing Blaise, he wouldn't let me live it down if he knew what I was doing now, _Draco thought as he scooped up some more cream. _Or better yet, why I have to apply the cream in the first place,_ the blond thought with a sigh. _The lucky bastard got off lightly with having a female partner he can fuck,_ Draco thought jealously as he scooped up the last bit of cream.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"Why are you walking like you have a stick up your ass?" Vincent asked inside the Slytherin changing rooms.

Draco, who had been walking towards his locker, stopped and turned around to face the Beater. To tell the truth, Draco was confused how Vincent had noticed anything was wrong with the way he walked. After all, his ass has stopped feeling sore about twenty minutes after he'd applied the soothing balm.

To his relief, the blond saw that Vincent wasn't looking at him but had been talking to Blaise of all people.

"I'm not," Blaise said snappishly.

And as Blaise walked towards the chalkboard, Draco could see that the other boy really walked liked he had been thoroughly fucked the night before. _How the hell did that happen? _the blond wondered. _Haven't I thought just half an hour ago how lucky Blaise is for having Hermione as his partner?_ Draco asked himself. He shook his head and got out his Quidditch gear from his locker.

And then it suddenly hit him. _Blaise was partnered with Hermione Granger. The Hermione Granger, who hadn't hesitated to cast a Confundus Charm on McLaggen to get Weasley on the Quidditch team. So, why shouldn't she try to give Gryffindor an advantage by making Blaise submit to her as they too brewed the Zët Potion yesterday?_ Draco wondered as he absently took off his sweater.

_Especially since she would have assumed that Gryffindor was already at a disadvantage with Harry being the submissive partner in our relationship and therefore the likely one to be bottoming, _Draco further mused as he put on his green Quidditch shirt.

_She somehow must have used her role of a complete dominant as her main argument to be the leading brewer. But if Blaise's reaction to Vincent's question is anything to go by, I won't find out how exactly she tricked him into agreeing to be fucked, _Draco thought as he took a quick glance at his team captain who was drawing something onto the chalkboard.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"She did what!?" Ron yelled inside the Gryffindor changing rooms. He couldn't believe what Harry told him.

"She just said that she made sure that Blaise wouldn't want to stay up on a broom for very long today," Harry repeated what Hermione had told him outside of the changing rooms right after she'd wished him good luck for the game.

"That's hilarious," Dean said in between fits of laughters. Like Harry, he had a very good idea what the reason for Zabini's hindrance was. However, unlike his captain, he knew exactly how Hermione and Blaise must have brewed the Zët Potion for the Slytherin to have such a problem, which made him laugh even more.

"I can't believe that she got Zabini to agree to use the alternative method," Dean said after his laughter had calmed down somewhat.

"Alternative method?" Harry asked. In his textbook there was only one brewing instruction for the Zët Potion and as far as he could remember, his Sexual Potions professor hadn't mentioned more than one method for the mixed gender couples either.

"Yeah," Dean answered, only barely able to stop another laughing fit at the image his mind supplied him with, namely Hermione fucking Blaise with a strap-on dildo.

"It wouldn't be in your textbook, but in the mixed one, there is an alternative instruction for the case that the woman is the dominant one in the partnership," he finally explained.

"Though, I really shouldn't be surprised that they had to use the other method with Hermione being the bossy type," Dean added, making all three boys laugh.

By the time they stopped laughing, the two underage Beaters had entered the room, preventing Ron from asking Dean how exactly Hermione had been able to hinder Zabini as Altair Black's spell would prevent them from talking about anything Sexual Magic related in their presence.

The red-head decided that he would question Dean about it after the game. Not because he wanted to know in detail what Hermione had done. No, ever the strategist, he just wanted to know if whatever Hermione did could be repeated. Afterwards he could decide if they could use it to their advantage for future Quidditch matches. But for now, he would concentrate on the game against Slytherin.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

The Quidditch match had started with a very 'soft' handshake between the two captains. Considering that the normal handshake aimed to crush the other's hand, the secure grip Harry and Blaise shared could be considered soft.

Though, Harry had to admit that the arrogant smirk on Draco's face when they set off had worried him a bit. But now, seventy-six minutes into the game, Harry had a good idea what the reason behind the smirk was. Apparently Draco had no problem with staying up on a broom for long times, even after what they did last night. _Yep_, Harry decided, _Draco must have somehow found a way to get rid of the soreness which plagued him before breakfast._

However, the same couldn't be said about Blaise. Slytherin's captain was so twitchy on his broom that it was rather easy for the Gryffindor Chasers to get the Quaffle from him. Add to it that Slytherin's Keeper wasn't the best player the house of the snake ever had, as well as Ginny and Dean working well together with the new Chaser and Ron being on his best today, it wasn't very surprising that Gryffindor was leading the game 150-30.

With his team being so many points ahead, Harry could afford to fly leisure circles around the field. That was until he spotted the Snitch near the outer right Slytherin goal post. Taking a quick look into Draco's direction, the Seekers' eyes met, signalling to each other that they too saw the Snitch, before both boys started to race after the golden ball.

They neared the Snitch from opposing sides of the field, but as they were about sixteen feet away from the Snitch, the ball suddenly shot upwards, both Seekers following, determined to catch the Snitch and end the game.

Draco's motivation was to save his house from certain defeat as it was clear that Slytherin's Chasers would never be able to catch up the points Gryffindor had scored so far. Harry, on the other hand, wanted to underline today's brilliant performance of his team by winning hands down against their eternal rival.

When the Snitch started to fly in spirals, Draco was not even two feet behind the brunet. To keep the upper hand, Harry decided to use his adjusted version of the move Hufflepuff's Chaser Hutchins performed during the last match to try and catch the Snitch before the blond. But, as Harry was only a bit over an inch away, a well-aimed Bludger sent by Crabbe hit the tip of his broom, sending Harry slightly off-track. This allowed the Snitch to escape from Harry's reach and to get out of sight from both Seekers again.

With the Snitch having just escaped them, they both decided that they could spare a minute for a quick chat, after all it was rare that the Snitch was spotted once again right after they'd lost it a minute ago.

"I really hadn't thought that you'd able to adjust Hutchings' move," Draco commented appraisingly as they both flew skywards.

"Thanks," Harry said in return. And then he added, "Though, if your team mates don't catch up soon, it won't even matter which of us catches the Snitch."

"Hmm," Draco grumpily agreed before he flew towards the Gryffindor side of the pitch. Ginny had used the turmoil Draco and Harry's chase had created near the Slytherin goals to score another ten points for her team. _Now Slytherin is one hundred and thirty points behind, _Draco thought dejectedly. He really needed to catch the Snitch soon.

And as if he had swallowed a spoon of Felix Felicis, his prayer was heard as he spotted the Golden Snitch to the left of the Gryffindor posts. Not even sparing time for a backward glance, Draco immediately flew towards where he saw the ball, only barely noticing that Gryffindor scored another goal.

Harry immediately noticed that Draco picked up speed and chased right after the blond. And this time, instead of flying spirals, the Snitch decided that it would escape the duo by flying towards the stands. But Harry and Draco were good enough flyers that they had no problem with following the Snitch under the stands and chased it through the wooden construction.

They were head to head now, both only an arms reach away from the Snitch when Draco made the deciding move. Instead of reaching out for the Snitch, the blond moved his upper body to the left side where Harry was flying besides him. But instead of jostling Harry, Draco leaned in and kissed Harry's cheek.

Harry was so surprised by the unexpected feeling of Draco's soft lips against his skin that he unconsciously slowed down a bit. But this one moment of hesitation was enough for Draco to outstrip the brunet and catch the Snitch with his right hand.

Dumbfounded, Harry could only watch as Draco held out the ball with a big happy smile on his face. And despite his disappointment, Harry couldn't help but smile himself when he saw how happy Draco was.

When they flew out from under the stands, they heard the announcer say, "Malfoy caught the Snitch! We have a draw! I don't know when we last had a draw in Hogwarts' history."

"Shit!" was all Draco could say to the draw comment. He really had hopped that Slytherin would still only have been one hundred and forty points behind Gryffindor when he caught the Snitch. But apparently he had been so focused on catching the Snitch that he hadn't realised that Gryffindor was able to score once more.

"Come on, a draw is better than a full-out defeat," Harry tried to cheer Draco and himself up. "Though, it was really unfair of you to just kiss me," Harry complained as they flew towards the middle of the pitch. He really had wanted to win this game for his team.

"No, I was just returning the favour. Or have you forgotten the little Parseltongue trick you pulled yesterday?" Draco answered. "Besides, it's not like anyone saw it," he added with a wink.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**AN2:**I hope you liked the chapter. On my deviantart page I uploaded a picture with their positions during the hand-to-hand fight. It's in my Altair folder.


	32. Chapter 31 Brewing the Zët Potion

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**___, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes and kinks, swearing

**Beta:** Platinum

**AN: **Here is the next chapter. I'm deeply sorry for the delay. However, RL was busy and, even worse, I had a little writer's block which hopefully is now over. So, Happy belated New Year and enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 31 – Brewing the Zët Potion -~-~-**

_Finally, _Harry thought as he fell down on the bed in Room Zero. Today had been so exhausting for him that he didn't even care that the bed vanished his clothes. With a sigh, Harry turned around to lie on his stomach, thinking back on the last twelve hours.

At first, he'd been physically spent during the Quidditch match as he'd tried his hardest to catch the Snitch before Draco could get his hands on the golden ball. If this hadn't been exhausting enough, the little kiss Draco had given him as a distraction had mentally exhausted him more than visions from Voldemort ever had.

Not only had the kiss left a tingling feeling on his cheek, it had also created a warm and fuzzy feeling in his stomach that left Harry rather distracted. But instead of being able to lock himself up in Room Zero to ponder about the new feelings he felt, Harry was forced to join the party in Gryffindor tower. To top it off, nearly every Gryffindor had to ask him how it was possible that Draco caught the Snitch before him.

After the fourth person, Harry was very tempted to answer, "Draco kissed me," just to see the look on their faces. The seventh years would surely react with something along the lines of "Draco can't be such a good lay. So how did it really happen?" while the younger students, who were unaware of the blond being Harry's Sexual Magic partner, would say "Good joke, Harry. So what's the real reason?"

To cut it short, he instead opted to say "He was just a little bit faster than me, and then a beam got in my way." Which got him sympathetic answers like "That's really bad luck, mate," or "I'm sure you would have caught it if the beam hadn't been there."

Ron wasn't so easy to pacify because he knew that Blaise had played a bad game due to a Sexual Potions project. "Please tell me that you didn't lose against Malfoy because you had the same problem as Zabini?" he'd asked Harry.

Before Harry could answer in the negative, a dreamy voice said from behind them, "I believe the distraction was of a simpler nature. Wasn't it, Harry?"

Turning around, they saw that Luna, who was still wearing the ridiculous lion hat, had somehow gotten into the Gryffindor common room. But what caused Harry to stammer out a shaky "Eh...Yes," wasn't the hat she wore, but the Muggle cherry jelly lips Luna was eating. The way she was eating the sweets―giving the jelly lips a kiss before biting into them― led Harry to suspect that Luna knew exactly how Draco had distracted him.

To Harry's relief, Ron didn't seem to notice anything even though Luna gave him a wink when she walked over to Ginny. Instead his friend took a hold of Dean and asked the one question he hadn't gotten to ask in the Gryffindor changing rooms.

"So, Dean, how did Hermione accomplish to let Zabini look like an utter fool during the game?" Ron asked, very curious.

"Ehm," Dean said, not knowing how to begin. "Ehm...Welll," he stammered out, , before finally deciding on a response. "You know, the alternative brewing process Hermione used is nearly the same as the recipe for male only couples. So, if you want to know the details, Harry is the one you should ask," Dean expertly did push the unwanted topic towards Harry.

"Let's just say that it involved a lot of ass-fucking," Dean ended, speaking more at ease now that he wouldn't have to explain the detailed proceeding. With a slap of his hand on Ron's shoulder, Dean left Harry and Ron to get a new drink, happy that Harry would have to handle Ron's curiosity.

"So, Harry, tell me how Hermione worked her magic!" Ron demanded.

"Well...ehm...yeah..." Harry stammered out, not being any more comfortable with the topic than Dean had been. "Wasn't Dean's explanation enough?" he finally asked, hoping for the best.

"No, not really," Ron said in answer. "I still don't know if it could be repeated," the red-head explained.

"I don't think so," Harry said, his face turning red. "You know, we do not often have such demanding brews. Besides, normally it's the man who does the penetration, not the woman," Harry said. "So, maybe you should ask how Hermione talked Blaise into changing positions to the one that is penetrated?" Harry tried to copy Dean and pass the question over to the next person.

Finally it was Ron's turn to stammer as he said, "Ehm...yeah...I may do this later." It was clear that he did not want to have this talk with his ex-girlfriend. "By the way, how come neither you nor Malfoy were affected? I mean if the brewing instruction is nearly identical to the one Hermione used, one of you must have performed as badly as Zabini," Ron asked, wanting to change the subject.

"That's a secret," Harry said. And with that, Harry left Ron before his friend could ask even more questions the brunet didn't know how to answer. Besides, he didn't even know how Draco had gotten rid of the soreness so fast. So he would not have been able to tell Ron how it worked even if he wanted to.

_I really hope that I can draw out Draco's secret__ before we brew __the next potion __that__ will be so demanding,_ Harry thought back on the bed in Room Zero. _The brewing process ha__s__ been an eye-opening experience though, _Harry mused as he thought back about what happened after their little hand-to-hand fight.

**Flashback**

**Friday, 14th November 1997, Room Zero, 7pm**

After Draco had so boldly given his hard cock a stroke, Harry had needed a moment to come out of his daze before he followed the blond back into the bedroom. As he walked in, he found that Draco had already positioned himself where the brewing instruction said the bottoming partner had to be at the start of the first brewing stage—to the left of the brass cauldron, his upper body leaning on the long workbench, and his legs spread apart; giving Harry a perfect view of Draco's ass.

Slowly, Harry walked over, trying to get his hormones under control. As the top and dominant brewer, he was the one who was responsible for the success, who had to time his moves right and who had to do most of the work. Therefore, he couldn't allow himself to be distracted by Draco's very fuckable looking position.

_If the Quidditch game wasn't tomorrow, I would have preferred to bottom and let Draco do all the work,_ Harry thought as he picked up Draco's wand, which lay on the workbench next to the blond.

Since they would need one wand near the workbench and another near the bed, the boys had decided that whoever turned out to be the dominant would be using both their wands. This way he would not need to carry his own wand back and forth. Though, they had been very surprised when they noticed that the other's wand did work nearly as well as their own. While Harry had just accepted it as a fact, Draco had thought that it must have something to do with them being in a fourth order bond.

Harry took a slow breath in and controlled let the air out again, before he pointed the hawthorn wand at his owner's pucker hole to cast the cleaning charm. Next, Harry lit the fire under the cauldron which was already filled with six cups of water and two cups of Flobberworm mucus, which gave the contents of the cauldron a green colour.

When Draco had first settled into his position leaned over the workbench, he'd been grateful for the coolness of the surface as it helped him to come down from his near-orgasm state. Now, with the fire burning a bit away to his right, the mix of hot and cold created a strange, but not necessary unpleasant feeling.

This sensation was even intensified when Harry covered the blond's still half-hard cock with the hot lube, while Harry's other hand began to smear a generous amount of the cold lube on his puckered hole. Draco didn't know if he should bless or curse the one who invented the opposed lubes.

Harry didn't know why he was surprised when he inserted his index finger and noticed that Draco's hole was tight. _Really, we only have two Sexual Potions assignment per month and for the other two classes we have practice toys, _Harry chided himself.

Gingerly Harry prepared Draco's anus for what was to come in the next two to three hours, scooping up more of the cold lube when necessary, careful not to stimulate Draco's prostate too much as he stretched the muscles, and all the while he needed to have a watchful eye on the cauldron to his right, needing to make sure that Draco would orgasm just as the mixture began to boil.

When he added the second finger, he was forced to put pressure on the base of Draco's cock as the blond became too close to orgasm, while the contents of the cauldron were still far away from boiling.

_A__t least I had to boil the mix often enough to have developed a good feeling for how long it will take for it to bubble,_ Harry thought as he inserted the third finger, the fingers of his right hand starting to get affected by the cold lube.

Noticing that the colour of the liquid had turned a slightly darker shade of green, Harry threw caution to the wind and purposefully stimulated Draco's prostate. _Any second,_ Harry thought as he observed the contents of the cauldron.

When Harry heard the first sounds of bubbling, Draco was very close to orgasm but still not there yet. So, before they would be out of the ideal time window, Harry had the presence of mind to make use of the new information he'd gathered minutes ago.

"_Come for me, Draco!"_ Harry demanded in Parseltongue. And even if the blond couldn't understand what Harry had just spoken, Draco did as commanded and came all over Harry's left hand as well as the worktable.

After wiping his hand clean on a towel, Harry lowered the flame under the cauldron while Draco came down from his post-orgasm daze.

As Draco cleaned himself up with the towel Harry had discarded, Harry added the pre-prepared ingredients−sliced chicken liver and crushed juniper fruits−to the Flobberworm mucus mix. Then Harry picked up the brass stirring staff and moved it as if he wanted to draw an anti-clockwise swirl in the potion. When he reached the edge of the cauldron, Harry added three anti-clockwise circles before he took out the brass stirring staff.

The step that came next was the main reason why Harry had fought so hard to be the top during the brewing of the Zët Potion. Opposed to the chicken liver and juniper fruits, the licorice and false unicorn roots had to be prepared during the brewing process. While it sounded easy enough, the catch behind it was that while the dominant-top would be skinning the roots with a tool similar to a potato peeler, the bottom would be bound to the bed and get fucked by an enchanted brass dildo. And considering that he needed to peel two pounds of licorice roots and one of the false unicorn roots, Harry had the feeling that Draco would be dildo fucked for at least thirty minutes, if not longer.

"Come on, Draco. It's time to tie you up," Harry said as he made his way towards the bed, where they already placed a scarf to tie the bottom's hands to the headboard.

With a sigh, Draco discarded the towel on the workbench. At that moment, he really hated that Harry had overpowered him and turned him into the bottom. But as the blond walked closer to the bed, his mood lightened up with every step he took. By the time he reached the bed, a big smirk was present on his face.

_Oh, yes. Payback is gonna be a bitch_, Draco thought as he climbed onto the bed, where Harry already waited with the scarf in hand. After Draco sat back on his heals near the middle of the bed, Harry scooted forward so that he could reach Draco better.

"Why are you still smirking?" Harry asked as he made to grab Draco's left hand. He really couldn't understand what Draco found so entertaining of being tied up and fucked by a dildo for minutes.

"Maybe because you're forgetting something," Draco answered, amused as he took his left hand out of Harry's reach.

"And what would that be?" Harry asked, getting a bit annoyed as Draco swatted his hand away.

"You tell me, oh great expert on Thotus Malfoy's theories," Draco said with mock adoration as he once again swatted Harry's hand away.

After a moment, realisation finally hit Harry. _Shit!_ Harry cursed in his head. _How could I have forgotten about this? _he wondered. _God dammit, this is the reason why I even suggested that we have a little hand-to-hand fight! _Harry berated himself. He really couldn't understand how he could have forgotten that the bottom wouldn't just lie down and let himself be tied up and toy fucked. No, the bottom would struggle against the top, trying to stop being dominated. And while, for the sake of the brewing the Zët Potion, the bottom would have to submit in the end, it didn't stop him from dragging out the fight. _And knowing Draco, he will drag it out for as long as possible,_ e_specially since I got the better of him __earlier, _Harry thought.

_B__ut then, I did defeat him, didn't I?_ Harry motivated himself, smiling at the thought.

"Ready to submit, Draco?" the brunet goaded.

"Never!" Draco answered.

And with it their fight for dominance began. And while the outcome of their fight was already pre-determined by the brewing instruction, it didn't stop them from going all out in the beginning. At one point, Draco was even able to get a hold of the scarf and threaten to tie Harry to the headboard. But a well-placed kick into the blond's side turned the tables again.

After about fifteen minutes and a lot of laughs and cries later, Harry was finally able to get Draco where he wanted him to be. On his back with his hands tied together. Though, Harry had to admit that without Draco holding back during the last minutes, the fight would have taken much longer, if he even would have come out as the top.

_Thank Merlin that Draco was forced to submit in the end_, Harry thought as he picked up his wand and the brass dildo from the bedside table. _At least the fight is over now,_ he thought in relief, his breath still coming out irregular from their struggle.

Crawling back towards Draco, who too was catching his breath, Harry was disabused. Instead of just lying back and letting Harry insert the dildo, Draco used his still free legs to fight of Harry's advances.

"You didn't think that I would give up so easily, did you?" Draco asked with a smirk as he swatted the dildo out of Harry's hand.

After picking the dildo up again, Harry moved his lips to Draco's ear and whispered, _"Yes, I did. And now, be a dear and let me insert the dildo into your __ass__."_

"The same trick won't work twice," Draco commented Harry's use of Parseltongue.

"_Are you sure, Draco?"_ Harry asked, licking the blond's ear in emphasise.

"You're losing time," Draco said, his breathing having slightly picked up again. While his earlier orgasm helped him to keep a clear head, the blond couldn't deny that if Harry continued with his course, it wouldn't be too long before he would get lost in the throes of Parseltongue induced lust once again.

"_I wouldn't call this losing time,"_ Harry said as he now stroked Draco's cheek with the hand which held his wand. Harry's other hand was slowly moving the dildo downwards as the brunet tried to keep Draco's focus away from the blond's hole by continuing speaking in Parseltongue.

"_If you asked me, I'm well on my way to make you finally submit, Draco. After all you are so distracted by the hissing that you totally forg__o__t about moving your legs to ward me off,"_ Harry hissed as his right hand finally went between Draco's legs.

When Draco felt the dildo brushing against his balls, he let out a groan of annoyance but accepted that he had lost. Even he wasn't competitive enough to keep on fighting when it would lead to an object being poked around his most private area.

When Harry carefully inserted the dildo into Draco's ass, he was tempted to say something like "Are you sure that the same trick won't work twice?", but thought better of it. If he hadn't won the hand-to-hand fight, he would now be the one who would be in Draco's place. Therefore, instead of riling Draco up, Harry promised, "I'll be as quick as I can." And sealed the promise with a kiss to Draco's forehead.

"**Movere***," Harry said as he pointed his wand at the brass dildo to get it moving in and out of Draco's rectum.

Getting up from the bed, Harry threw a last glance at Draco which made his cheeks turn a nice shade of red. Harry really couldn't deny that the sight of a bound up Draco with a dildo moving in and out of his ass was a very arousing sight. And apparently his cock agreed with him too, as it was half-hard already.

Forcing himself to walk away, Harry grabbed the apron of his Sexual Potions top attire and put it on. He had been luckily enough to not get splashed by any hot liquid when he'd added the chicken liver and juniper fruits to the concoction. So, before his luck ran out, he preferred to better be safe than sorry and cover most of his front.

Picking up the potato peeler look-alike, Harry started to skin the licorice and false unicorn roots until all that was left of the roots were the necessary pounds of thinly sliced stripes. Then Harry added one pound of the licorice roots, stirred the contents of the cauldron five times anti-clockwise, added the one pound of false unicorn roots, stirred the mixture four times anti-clockwise and then another four times clockwise before he added the final pound of licorice roots and stirred the now thick muddy-brown liquid five times clockwise with the brass stirring staff.

Draco was more than relieved when he saw Harry laying down the stirring staff to let the potion cook for an hour. He could practically feel how his ass got sore by the minute. While at first the intrusion of the dildo had been bearable, Draco had changed his position after some time and with it the dildo had suddenly hit him in an angle which stimulated his prostate with nearly every thrust. To make matters worse, Draco had to force himself to stay as still as possible because whenever he made a sound of pleasure, Harry had turned around from his task to look at him.

Even though the blond wouldn't deny that it was very satisfying to see how Harry was clearly turned on by the sounds he made and the picture he presented, he wanted the dildo out of him. It just wasn't the same as being fucked by Harry, the cold lube Harry used as lubrication strengthening the feeling of wrongness.

And while the cold lube had lost its effect by the time Harry had started to skin the false unicorn, Draco had an orgasm half-way through the peeling of the last three false unicorn roots. Therefore, the blond's channel was now very sensitive and would like nothing better than to get a pause from all the friction it received.

"Thank, Merlin," Draco sighed in relief as Harry cancelled the moving charm on the dildo and gingerly took it out.

After Harry freed Draco's hands from the scarf, he picked up the glass of water from Draco's bedside table and held it out for his Altair partner.

"Here, take a drink," he said as he placed the glass to Draco's lips.

"Thank you," Draco said after he finished half the glass in one big gulp, before he fell down on the pillows again.

"So, how long do you think we have until the mixture turns a dandelion yellow?" Draco asked.

"I don't know," Harry answered. "If my hunch about really fighting for the top position was correct, then we should have more than the twenty to twenty-five minutes the book states. If not, then...yeah..." Harry trailed off, shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm fucked," Draco finished Harry's sentence. Because as soon as the potion's colour would be the desired dandelion yellow, it would be time for Draco to be penetrated by Harry's cock. So, he would be fucked in both the literal and the figurative sense as he doubted that he could endure an hour-long fucking by Harry right after the dildo.

"Hmm," Harry hummed in agreement at he let himself fall down besides the blond. "In this regard, it is a good thing that the time until the potion turns colours depends on how well the potion has been brewed so far. If it turns yellow in under fifteen minutes, I would say we forget the potion and ask if we can brew it again on the next full moon," Harry stated.

"I'm for you get fucked by the dildo for half an hour and then we forget about the potion," Draco said. _It would be bad enough that the potion failed. I really do not need to be at a disadvantage tomorrow on top of it, _Draco thought, closing his eyes.

"You do know that I would struggle against you?" Harry asked.

"Hmm," Draco answered. Opening his eyes to look at the brunet he added, "But that doesn't mean that you will succeed."

"We'll see, Draco. We'll see," was Harry's answer.

Ten minutes later Harry got off the bed and walked over to the bubbling cauldron. Peaking inside, he saw that the liquid still had a muddy-brown colour. _Thank god,_ Harry thought in relief.

"Don't worry, Draco," Harry called out. "The potion is still brown."

"Good," the blond answered, not even bothering to open his eyes, being overcome by exhaustion.

Another ten minutes later and they'd reached the twenty-five minutes the book stated the potion took to change colours, but Harry and Draco's potion was still a muddy-brown. When another five minutes passed without the potion changing colour, Harry started to get a bit worried.

_Have we done something wrong?_ he wondered in self-doubt.

Then, after the potion had bubbled for thirty-four minutes, the brown started to turn lighter. "It's time," Harry informed Draco, who opened his eyes and with a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a yawn got into position―namely on his knees with his hands above his head.

Picking up the hot lube from the workbench, Harry joined Draco on the bed. Generously applying the lube on his cock with five strokes of his hand, Harry smeared some more on Draco's entrance before he took hold of Draco's wrists and entered the blond's loose hole.

_Finally,_ Harry thought. The whole naked hand-to-hand fight had turned him on, add to it the sounds Draco made when he'd been fucked by the brass dildo and the sexual frustration was perfect._ If the brewing didn't involve this, I surely would have wanked like hell tonight_, he thought as he thrust out and in of Draco.

"Ergh," Draco groaned. The thirty minute pause hadn't been nearly long enough to take away his rectum's over-sensitiveness.

"_Draco_," Harry groaned out when he came not even three minutes later, the blond not far behind.

After both of them caught their breath again and came down from their post-orgasm high, Draco said, "You do know that we're supposed to keep fucking until the hour is up?"

Harry let out a deep-drawn sigh, then answered, "Thanks for the reminder," and started to slowly, some may call it leisurely, move in and out of Draco's ass for the next twenty minutes. Draco was just happy that Harry too seemed to be too exhausted to do some real fucking. Not that he believed that his arse could take any more.

"Finally," Draco said in relief when the time was up. He really didn't know how much more of the leisure fucking he could take.

Harry shared Draco's sentiment. _Who would have thought that being the dominant-top could be so exhausting and demanding?_ Harry wondered as he moved out of Draco and walked towards the cauldron.

Putting out the flame, Harry added two mullein petals to the yellow potion and stirred it three times clockwise and then finished with a clockwise swirl, ending in the middle of the cauldron.

"Looks good enough," Draco said over Harry's shoulder, inspecting the now forget-me-not blue potion.

"Hmm," Harry hummed his agreement with the blond's statement. "But now, all I want to do is to go back to bed and sleep."

"I'm in," Draco said as he followed Harry back to the bed.

And as Harry got comfortable under the blanket, he thought, _W__hile __I'm__ happy to not __have a__ sore __ass tomorrow__, __under other circumstances I would have__ liked it better if __I'd been the__ bottom. __Th__e __responsibility __that__ comes with being__ the __dominant-__top __isn't really my thing. At least not during Potions brewing, _he thought, not minding to top sometimes outside of their Sexual Magic curriculum.

**End Flashback**

_At least now I know for sure that the Lloj Potion was right and that I really prefer to be the submissive bottom most of the time, _Harry contemplated. And with this final thought, he fell asleep atop the covers on his bed in Room Zero.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Draco was exhausted when he finally entered Room Zero. While it was a draw, his house mates had celebrated like they'd smashed the Gryffindors. Draco couldn't understand why they, and especially Blaise, were so excited about the draw.

_Hadn't they watched the game?_ Draco had wondered more than once during the party in the Slytherin common room. _Blaise made our team look like utter fools!_ Draco had ranted in his head.

And when he told his friend what he thought about his performance as a Keeper, stressing that if he hadn't caught the Snitch Slytherin would have been out of the race for the cup, Blaise had just laid an arm around Draco's shoulder and said, "But, Draco, that's the point. _You _caught the Snitch! How long have we all waited to beat Potter to the Snitch? Years, my friend, _years_!"

And while Draco had been ecstatic that he finally beat Harry to the Snitch, he couldn't deny that the victory would have felt so much sweeter if he would have won the game too. Besides, in his mind, catching the Snitch before Harry had always been a personal goal of his, something which only existed between him and Harry with no room for anyone else. So he couldn't understand why his house mates valued the catch more than a victory.

The worst thing about it was that they insisted that Draco, as the guest of honour, had to stay till the end of the party at three in the morning. Now, the only thing he wanted to do was the crawl into bed and sleep. _Fuck brushing my teeth,_ the blond thought as he opened the bedroom door.

But when he looked up from the door handle, Draco and stopped mid-step. There, sprawled out on the bed, atop of the bed covers lay a naked Harry Potter, his legs spread wide open, giving Draco a perfect view of the brunet's ass. The sight was made even more inviting by the sounds Harry made.

_If Harry's eyes weren't closed, I would assume that he's trying to seduce me__...__And succeeding,_ Draco thought as he drank in the arousing sight Harry made.

The groans and moans Harry made were muffled by the pillow his face was pressed against. Still, stepping closer, Draco could make out that in between the moans and groans, Harry was saying his name.

_Is Harry having a wet dream about me?_ Draco wondered.

_No, his brow is too furrowed,_ the blond thought after he took a closer look on Harry's face. While he hadn't seen Harry's aroused face as often as he would like, he had still seen it often enough to know that even in the throes of orgasm, Harry's forehead would stay relaxed.

_Maybe he's having a nightmare?_ Draco wondered.

And as to answer Draco's silent question, Harry screamed out in a panic, "Draco, no!"

That decided it for the blond. Gingerly he laid a hand on Harry's shoulder and shook the other boy. "Wake up, Harry. It's just a nightmare," he said.

"Draco?" Harry asked in a muffled, shaky voice as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Yeah, it's me," Draco said. "You had a nightmare," the blond added in explanation when he noticed Harry looking around in bewilderment.

"Oh," Harry just said, still not completely awake yet.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Draco offered.

"No, it's okay," Harry dismissed. "I'm actually surprised that I haven't had one since the beginning of the year," the brunet added as an afterthought as he got out of the bed.

"Maybe I chased them away?" Draco joked.

"Maybe," Harry answered from the doorway with a secret, little smile on his face which Draco couldn't interpret. However, the adoring glint in Harry's eyes let Draco hope for the best.

When the brunet returned, Draco was already waiting for him. "I'm too agitated to go back to sleep," Harry said as he walked towards the window.

"At least try to," Draco asked, holding open the bed covers in invitation. When Harry still didn't make a move to join him, the blond added, "If you can't fall asleep, you can always get up again."

With a nod, Harry slowly walked towards the bed and cuddled into Draco's open arms, getting into a comfortable position but still doubting that he would find anymore sleep this night.

"Good night," Draco said and gave Harry a kiss on his head.

"Good night," the brunet repeated, closing his eyes. Surprisingly, the warmth and comfort of Draco's body next to him was enough to calm Harry down and so, he fell asleep once again in moments, safe in Draco's embrace.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Movere: **Latin for "Move!" according to Google translator.

**S****exual Potion top attire:** If you have forgotten how it looks like, got to my deviant art page (same user name), click on the Altair folder and look at it again.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Next: **The next chapter is titled "Completing Basic Sexual Magic Homework". So it has some juicy scenes in it. I just don't know when I'll find the time to write it. Hopefully before February is over.


	33. Ch 32 Completing BaTs homework Part I

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes and kinks, sex toys usage

**Beta:** Platinum. Thank you for your time and brilliant work. :)

**AN: **Wow. It's been two years since I started writing this story and I'm only halfway done telling it.** Thank you all for your reviews, favs and alerts over the years!**

Even if it is weeks later than I hoped to update, here's another chapter for you to enjoy.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 32 – Completing Basic Sexual Magic Homework Part I-~-~-**

**Sunday, 16th November 1997, Room Zero**

"Urgh," Harry groaned as he woke up from his dream, stretching his body. His back ached, yesterday's Quidditch match finally making itself known in his muscles. Looking out of the window, Harry was surprised to see that the sun was already high in the sky.

After his nightmare last night, he hadn't thought that he would be able to fall asleep again, even less sleep so soundly until near lunch time. But apparently feeling Draco's body heat right next to him had been enough to calm him from his agitated state. _But then, _Harry resumed,_ the dream had been about Draco getting hurt during the final battle. _The fear for Draco's life the only detail of his dream he could remember clearly.

After rubbing his eyes, Harry got up from the bed. It was only when he entered the bathroom that he realised that he had forgotten to change into his sleeping clothes last night._I__'ve__ really been out of it, _Harry thought with a smile, remembering the little kiss Draco gave him during the match and the question he'd gotten from his house mates as he stepped into the shower.

Harry was still thinking about the kiss when he was washing his body, his hands stroking his cock on their own volition. The memory of that simple and short kiss on his cheek, soon morphed into a much more heated kiss.

Harry leaned his head back against the shower wall, imaging that it was the force of Draco's kiss that made him take a step back. In his mind, Draco tasted like the rich dark chocolate the blond loved to eat. As the battle between his and Draco's tongue neared its end, Harry's back came into contact with the cold tiles, while his chest was splashed with the warm water of the shower, his hand moving faster and faster.

Harry was so lost in his fantasy that he was surprised when his orgasm overcame him, bringing him back to reality. Not knowing how to handle the new development, Harry quickly cleaned off the residue of his wank, and stepped out of the shower to get dressed.

"Finally awake, sleepyhead?" Draco asked when Harry stepped out of their walk-in closet, taking him by surprise.

"Ehm, yeah," Harry answered, flustered. It wasn't every day when the star of your latest sexual fantasy was standing right in front of you not even five minutes after your wank. Harry just hoped that Draco hadn't been in their rooms while he was in the shower, and heard anything he didn't want the other boy to hear.

"Since you're awake, I thought that we could try out the Zët Potion," Draco suggested, wondering why Harry was so embarrassed about having slept in, but deciding against asking the other boy about it.

"I totally forgot about it," Harry exclaimed, softly smacking his forehead with his hand.

"Don't worry. I only remembered it myself when I heard Blaise complain about brewing the potion this morning," Draco said with a small chuckle. "So? Shall we find out what dislikes we supposedly have?" Draco asked.

"Yeah, I'll go and get the textbook," Harry agreed before he went into the living room in search for his Sexual Magic book.

When Harry returned, searching for the pages in the book which listed the most usual colours of the Zët Potion and their meanings, Draco had already filled two vials with the potion.

_How could I have forgotten about the potion when the cauldron was still standing in our bedroom?_ Harry wondered, shaking his head.

"Could you get us a knife?" Draco asked when he noticed that Harry was back.

"Here you go," Harry said as he handed over the small knife he'd gotten.

"Thank you," Draco answered, putting down the third vial so that he could prick his forefinger.

Letting one drop of his blood mix with the Zët Potion, the potion turned from forget-me-not blue to brownish red with soft pink stripes.

"Your turn," Draco said, handling the knife back to Harry in favour of looking up the meanings of his colours.

Harry's potion also turned a brownish red, but instead of the soft pink it had soft orange stripes.

"The potion seems to work as it should," Harry commented.

"Hmm," Draco absently hummed in agreement, his attention focused on the page in front of him. After a short paused he asked Harry, "Do you think that this is the brownish red for vomit play or for blood play?"

"Hmm," Harry contemplated, picking up Draco's vial to compare it with his own and then comparing it with the little colour squares in the book. "I would say that our red tones are identical, but as the colour for vomit and blood play look identical to me I don't know which dislike they stand for." Taking another look at his own vial, Harry added, "Maybe we have both colours and can't just distinctive them? I mean the red stripe is twice as big as my orange one."

"Maybe you're right," Draco agreed, thoughtfully. "Can't say that I'm a big fan of either."

"Me neither," Harry agreed, turning the pages in the book to find the two other colours.

"Since I'm obviously not afraid of giving head, I would say that it's the scarring I dislike," Harry stated with red cheeks after having read both entries for a pale orange colour.

"Yes, you're definitely not afraid of blow jobs," Draco agreed, liking his lips at the memory. Taking the book from Harry, Draco searched for his pale pink colour.

And as Draco took his time comparing different shades of pink with the pink colour his potion had turned into, Harry reflected on his result. _Blood play, vomit play and scarring, _Harry listed his result, knowing very well why he absolutely detested all three things. _The blood play and scarring?―The graveyard at the end of the Triwizard tournament. And the vomit play?―His time at the Dursleys'._ All in all, Harry found his result and its interpretation accurate.

"I'm giving up!" Draco exclaimed after about five minutes of trying to find the correct meaning of his second colour.

"What's your problem?" Harry asked from his place on the bed, having taken care to have at least one of his feet on the ground to not be undressed by the bed.

"The shades are all wrong," Draco said. "The two colours which come closest to my shade of pink stand for having an aversion to bunny ears," Draco began before he was interrupted by Harry's laughter.

The brunet found the image of Draco with pink bunny ears too hilarious. Soon Draco was joining the laughter. However his reason behind it was mainly because as Harry was laughing he was stomping his foot, resulting in Harry's clothing vanishing and reappearing in sync with his tapping.

When both boys have finally calmed down, Harry asked, "So what's the other meaning?"

"Detesting pubic hair," Draco stated. "Something I really don't care about either way."

"Then I don't know what you dislike. Though, we could always test the bunny ears," Harry suggested with a chuckle.

"Very funny, Harry," Draco answered. "If I had to name something, I would have said that it is urination..." Draco said and Harry could easily imagine the blond not liking this kind of thing.

"But?" Harry asked, knowing that Draco could rule out this dislike.

"But the colour for it is a light blue," he explained, not understanding why this dislike didn't show in his potion.

"I can imagine that as long as it doesn't get in your hair and if you can wash it off soon enough, you can tolerate it," Harry suggested. "After all, the potion only shows the absolute no-gos."

"Or we have messed it up after all," Draco said, joining Harry on the bed.

"Don't be such a worrywart," Harry said. "The colour of our Zët Potion is correct and it also changes colours as it is supposed to do. For all we know, your dislike is just so specific that it isn't in our textbook," Harry tried to cheer Draco up.

"You know what, you're probably right," Draco said, standing up from the bed. After all, hadn't he written in his essay about the Lloj Potion that one shouldn't blindly believe in the outcome of the Lloj Potion? _So why shouldn't the same be true for the interpretation of its opposite potion, _Draco reasoned.

"Come on, let's get some lunch," Harry suggested, standing up too.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Wednesday, 19th November 1997, Sexual Potions Classroom**

"So, let's see how you fared with brewing the Zët Potion," Professor Essentjelly said in greeting at the beginning of their Sexual Potions lesson. "While I take a look at your work, please read chapter twenty in your books," he added, and started to walk around the room.

When he reached Blaise and Hermione's workbench, Harry heard their professor suggest to Blaise, "Mr Zabini, if you don't want your Quidditch skills to be affected by your Sexual Potions homework, you should try using Miplo's Soothing Balm."

Dean, who too overheard the comment, sniggered.

"Oh, shut up, Thomas," Blaise yelled at the amused Gryffindor. "It's not like Harry's play wasn't affected either," he accused, wanting to take the spotlight away from himself.

"Hey, only because I didn't catch the Snitch, doesn't mean that I had the same problem as you," Harry defended himself. He already had had enough of the teasing from his house mates.

"Now, gentlemen," Professor Essentjelly intervened before the situation could get out of hand. "The only pair who couldn't have assigned their positions in a way that no Quidditch player would be affected were the two Seekers. But as neither Mr Potter nor Mr Malfoy are complaining about any disadvantages because of the assignment, they obviously have found a way to avoid the negative after-effects," he said and moved to the pair he'd mention, letting Blaise sulk as Hermione and Dean smirked at him.

"A perfect shade of blue," he commented the colour of Draco and Harry's unreacted Zët Potion. "Did you look up your meanings?" he asked the question he'd asked every student.

"Yes," Harry answered, "but somehow the interpretation isn't right."

"What colour troubles you?" he asked.

"My pale pink," Draco answered this time, pointing at his reacted vial.

"It certainly isn't in the textbook," Professor Essentjelly said after he had inspected Draco's vial for himself. "Let's see if we can find the shade in my extended reference book," he suggested and walked to his desk where the book lay.

Following their professor, Harry and Draco watched as the Potions master searched for Draco's pale pink colour.

"Ah, here it is," Professor Essentjelly exclaimed after four minutes of searching, not voicing the meaning but stepping aside so that the two boys could read the entry for themselves.

_**~Carnation pink: This person detests branding, both receiving and doing the branding~**_

"That's more like it," Draco said, being crept out by the reminder of the Dark Mark.

"The bunny ears were better," Harry joked to lighten Draco's mood.

"Maybe you should wear them if you like them so much," the blond suggested as they walked back to their table.

"As if Sirius would ever let me live down this one," Harry answered as they took their seats.

"Not only Sirius," Draco said with a teasing smirk and got back to his supposed reading.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Thursday, 20th November 1997, Basic Sexual Magic Classroom**

"Good afternoon, class," Professor Greige greeted his students. "After we've finally completed our course on the usage of restraints and penetrating toys, it's time for a realistic use of them. For this purpose, you'll each draw two lots, one restraint and one penetration toy. The toys written on them will be what your partner will use on you," he explained.

"If for some reason the toy you draw is a hard limit for you, then please approach me after class so that we can find an alternative for you," he said and with that he picked up the bowl filled with little paper shavings with the word 'restraint' on it, while his wife took the bowl marked as 'penetration', and together they walked to the first bench, which happened to be Blaise and Hermione's.

"Please no strap-on," Blaise muttered as he put his hand in the bowl marked 'penetration' while Hermione was drawing her restraint, trying hard to hold back a chuckle at Blaise's obvious fear of the toy she used on him not even a week ago.

"Phew, just a butt plug," Blaise said in relief when he opened his lot.

After Blaise had also drawn his restraint, the professors walked to the next bench where Draco and Harry were sitting. And just as they boys were about to open their lots to find out what toys they would be using, they heard Blaise boast, "Handcuffs and a vibrator, you're so gonna pay for the Zët Potion."

"You're aware that I'll get to restrain you in return?" Hermione asked, sure that she would be able to get back to Blaise.

"Really?" Blaise asked her, raising an eyebrow in challenge, turning around in his chair to face Hermione. "I would love to see how you'll manage that with the toys I've drawn. You won't even get me to go down on you with the gag, less restrain my wandering hands."

_Too many details, _Draco and Harry thought in unison, returning their attention back to their own lots.

_A tie and anal beads. Not too bad,_ Harry thought about what he'd gotten. Looking to his right, he saw that Draco had received a blindfold and a so called double penetration dildo. The latter one being something Harry had wanted to try out since they'd studied the toy two weeks ago, but being too embarrassed to ask Draco if he wanted to use the toy with him.

Draco wasn't unhappy with their toys either. Considering all the restraints they'd covered there was a fifty-fifty chance that he would get one of the restraints that wouldn't tie up his hands/feet but would instead take away one of his other freedoms―his eyesight or his ability to speak. And as he really liked to have his hands all over Harry, giving up his sight was alright with him. Besides, he now had the opportunity to tie Harry up with his Slytherin tie, a fantasy he'd had for a while now.

"I think we have a nice variety," Draco commented out loud.

"Hmm," Harry agreed, but didn't say anything more as everyone in the room had finally drawn their lots.

"As fun as playing with the toys will be for you," Professor Greige began, "you'll still have to write a report about them. I want you to write down how it feels for you to be the one using the toys, and how it feel to have them used on you. I want you to especially concentrate on the restraints, and how they shift the power dynamic between you," he explained their task.

"As for the rest of today's lesson, we'll test your theoretical knowledge about the toys we studied. This grade, combined with your report, which is due to on Tuesday, will make up half of your mark this term," Professor Greige said joyfully before he handed out a multiple-choice quiz.

Nearly an hour later, Professor Greige disrupted the silence in the classroom. "Your time is up. I hope you enjoyed the vanilla toys, and are eager to try the real toys after the Christmas break."

"Real toys?" someone in the classroom wondered out loud.

"Yes," Professor Greige answered. "Things like floggers, whips and bondage," he named some examples. "Though you'll only be able to choose one to study practically in smaller groups," he added, looking pointedly at Hermione. "But before we come to them, we'll discuss some more non-toy techniques," he ended.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

As Harry sat in Transfiguration, Draco wondered if he should be excited or afraid about Professor Greige's announcement. The idea of learning how to properly perform bondage was very thrilling to him. But on the other hand, he feared that the practical session would be too personal for his, and especially for Harry's, liking. Besides, he wasn't sure if only the idea behind bondage, or bondage itself that excited him.

_But this is a worry for another day,_ Draco mused as they wouldn't be using the 'real' toys until after the winter holidays. Instead he loosened his green Slytherin tie, playing with the material as he thought about everything he could do to Harry with the things the brunet had drawn.

By the time Harry returned to their rooms, Draco had everything planned out in his head. "Say, Harry," he asked, "how about we get your toys done this evening, and mine during the weekend?"

"Hmm...Okay," Harry answered shrugging his shoulders after having thought a moment about the proposal. Considering his Quidditch schedule today was ideal for him to be on the receiving end. Besides, it would give him at least another day to think about which of the double penetration toys he would like to use.

"Around eight?" Draco asked, wanting to clarify a time.

"How about half past?" Harry suggested. "I still have the Potions essay to finish."

"Okay," Draco agreed with a gentle smile, he couldn't wait for tonight.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

It was eight twenty-nine and Harry still hadn't returned to Room Zero, making Draco worry that he wouldn't have enough time to do everything he planned to do to Harry tonight.

_If I'd known that he had so much trouble with finishing his Potions essay I would have offered __my help__,_ Draco thought after another two minutes had passed.

And just as Draco was considering if he should go to the library to drag Harry back to their rooms, the brunet boy finally appeared, twelve minutes late and out of breath.

"Sorry," Harry apologised, his breath still uneven. "I got stuck with the question: why one always has to use an uneven number of rose hips in antidotes."

To tell the truth, not only had the question about the rose hips delayed him, but he'd also been distracted by thoughts of Draco tying his hands to the headboard of their bed. But the blond didn't have to know that.

Draco could understand why answering that particular question had taken Harry a bit longer. The question was tricky in the way that the answer wasn't related to the property of the rose hips but to the venomous ingredients it countered. However, this knowledge didn't stop him from exploiting the situation like any other good Slytherin.

"I'll forgive you if I can use more than one tie," Draco said in a playful tone, already changing his plans to include also tying Harry's feet up. _Oh, yes. Tying up Harry's arms and legs will be fun,_ Draco thought, careful to not let his eagerness show on his face.

Before he could think about the consequences, Harry gave his agreement. It wasn't like the playful tone in Draco's voice had ever led him astray in the last months.

Not ten minutes later Harry was regretting his easy agreement to the change of plans. In the library, he'd already fantasized that Draco would use one tie to restrain both of his hands as it would be a waste to only bind one of his hands. During his quick detour to the bathroom before the start of their session, the images in Harry's head had changed to also include his feet being bound together at his ankles.

But what Harry hadn't taken into consideration was that 'more than one tie' didn't mean using two ties, or even three if Draco wanted to bind his legs spread eagle. No, for Draco using 'more than one tie' actually equalled five.

_Five! _Harry complained in his head, not able to make his displeasure known out loud as Draco had used the fourth tie as a gag, while the fifth was used as a blindfold.

Of course Harry had argued that he hadn't agreed to this many ties being used on him while he was still able to speak. But Draco had dismissed his charge with ease.

"A: We didn't agree on a maximum amount of ties," Draco began to count his points. "B: Your lot didn't say in what way the tie was to be used, only that it must restrain you in some way. Which brings me to C: With using it as a rope, gag and blindfold we're covering all bases, just to be safe. And D: We were told to especially concentrate on the restraints and how they shift the power dynamic. So the more you're restrained, the better I'd say," Draco ended with a smirk before he had to gag Harry to stop the brunet from complaining once again.

"Oh, and there's also E," Draco whispered in Harry's ear as an afterthought as he covered Harry's eyes with the last tie. "It's much more fun for me." And with that Draco secured the tie behind Harry's head, before getting off the bed to enjoy the view.

The blond had to admit that reality was even better than his imagination. He couldn't believe how the sight of Harry being tied to the bed with his Slytherin ties, unable to move, turned him on. His cock was already hard just from staring at Harry's naked body on the bed.

His eyes wandered from Harry's slim arms to his chest with the perked, rosy nipples downwards over a toned stomach towards Harry's groin, noticing that the pubic hair he'd shaven off during their Halloween ritual had nearly grown back to its original black nest. Skipping Harry's male parts for now, Draco let his eyes wander lower to the strong legs Harry'd gained from playing Quidditch before trailing back to unabashedly stare at Harry's cock, comparing it with his own, paler one.

"Eco?" he heard Harry's muffled voiced speak through the gag, assuming that the other had tried to say his name. From the way the brunet was moving his head around, it was obvious that he feared that Draco had left the room as no word had been said in the last minutes.

_Thank Merlin that Harry can't see me staring,_ Draco thought in relief before calling out, "Don't worry I'm still here." Feeling like he needed to say a reason for having been still for so long, he added, "I just couldn't decide which anal beads I should use."

_And to think that my original plan had included making Harry wear the pink bunny ears he loved to mention during the last days,_ Draco thought with a smile. _The gag and blindfold certainly look better on him._

Picking up his wand and the anal beads he'd chosen before dinner even started, Draco drank in the sight in front of him one last time before he joined Harry on their bed. Laying down the sex toy, Draco cast the cleaning and lubrication spell before stretching Harry with two fingers.

Picking up the anal beads, Draco carefully inserted bead by bead, glad that he'd chosen one that consisted of nine beads in total, alternating between a smaller and bigger bead, making the insertion of the four small beads very easy. While he could just pull the toy back out again, or fuck Harry with it, Draco thought that it was much more fun to let the toy stay in place and instead tease Harry with his hands and mouth, not knowing when he would again have the opportunity to explore Harry's body as much as he wanted.

Sitting up from his kneeling position between Harry's spread open legs, Draco let his hand wander up and down the sides of Harry's stomach while his lips followed Harry's happy trail up to the brunet's left nipple to suck, bite and lick it.

After two minutes of teasing Harry, Draco couldn't stand it any longer. The muffled noises Harry made were getting on his nerves. Decision made, Draco stopped stroking Harry's sides and stomach with his hands to remove the annoying gag.

"Than..." Harry started to say, but Draco interrupted him with a domineering kiss, underlying his dominance by twisting both of Harry's nipples with his hands.

After teasing and kissing Harry for some more minutes while being able to fully enjoy the noises Harry made, Draco decided that it was now time to make use of the anal beads which were still inside Harry's ass. Wanting to take the brunet by surprise, he gingerly moved his right hand between Harry's spread legs, careful to not touch the other boy and took a hold of the anal beads' handle. Swiftly, he pulled at the metal toy and moved six of the beads out, enjoying Harry's scream of pleasure from the unexpected stimulation of his prostate.

"Still complaining about being blindfolded?" Draco teasingly asked Harry as he ever so slowly pulled out the remaining beads, dragging the procedure out as much as he could.

"No," Harry answered, his voice husky from lust and pleasure.

"Good," Draco said before he completely inserted the anal beads again. While he'd originally planned to fuck Harry a bit with the rigid string of beads, Harry's reaction to having the beads slowly taken out of him had changed his mind.

Draco soon abandoned touching or kissing Harry in favour of just watching Harry all tied up, Harry's reaction to the beads popping out of his asshole and stroking his own cock with the hand that wasn't moving the string of beads.

"I wonder if I can make you come like this," Draco told a squirming Harry, enjoying how helpless to his advances the brunet was right now.

"_Please_," Harry hissed out, not realising that he'd spoken in Parseltongue and aroused Draco even more with speaking the language of the snakes.

"I didn't understand you," Draco said in a teasing tone, wanting to hear Harry speak Parseltongue again even if his statement was true.

"_Please, Draco. Touch me,_" Harry pleaded once again, making Draco stroke his cock faster as the words made the blond come dangerously close to the edge.

"_Draco, please,_" Harry cried out when his cock was still denied, becoming desperate to finally find release. But all Harry's plea achieved was for Draco to finally come undone, covering Harry's stomach and thighs with the blond's semen.

"You're aware that I really can't understand you?" Draco said breathlessly, when he came down from his orgasmic high.

"Urgh?" Harry more groaned than asked.

"You're speaking in Parseltongue," Draco explained as he finally decided to abandon the anal beads in favour of taking Harry's swollen cock into his hand, using his own sperm as lubrication.

Before Harry could fully comprehend Draco's statement, the sensation of his cock finally being touched overwhelmed him, making him forget what Draco had just said in favour of finally finding his much needed release.

"_Draco!_" Harry screamed out after only five fast strokes of Draco's hand.

By the time Harry came out of his post-orgasm daze, Draco had already removed the tie he'd used as a blindfold.

"Shit, that was intense," Harry commented, trying to breathe normally again and having completely forgotten Draco's comment of him speaking Parseltongue, believing that the blond's words had been plain bedroom teasing.

"Will you please release me," Harry asked when his bound wrists started to ache.

"Hmm...No," Draco answered. "I think I like you just as you are now," he teased, twisting Harry's left nipple to underline his point.

"Draco, please. We have classes tomorrow," Harry argued.

"And?" the blond asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Draco!" Harry said, starting to become a bit worried that he would have to spend the night like this.

"Just teasing, Harry, just teasing," Draco appeased, stretching his arms to free Harry's hands, before scooting down the bed to release Harry's legs.

"Thanks," Harry said, rubbing his arms.

"Are you hurt?" Draco asked when he saw what Harry was doing, concerned about the other boy's well-being.

"It's okay. They're just a bit sore from having been in the same position for so long," Harry tried to pacify the obviously worried blond.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Draco apologised. "If I'd known, I would have released you sooner."

"Like I said, it's okay," Harry repeated, the blond's worry about him making him feel giddy, happy and more importantly loved.

After a moment of silence, both boys having been lost in their own thoughts of the young man beside them, Harry suggested, "Shower and then sleep?"

"Hmm," Draco agreed, sluggishly standing up from the bed and then helping Harry to stand up before they walked to the shower, still holding hands.

As they settled into bed ten minutes later, Harry asked Draco, "Did you come just by watching me?" Without being able to see what had happened, Harry didn't know if the other boy had touched himself or not and he was really curious about the answer.

But instead of getting an answer, he only heard a soft snore coming from the already asleep blond next to him. With a sigh, Harry closed his eyes, letting his exhaustion claim him and followed Draco into the land of dreams.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN: **I'm unsure if the 'real' toys mentioned in this chapter could be too much for some of you. So feedback on this would be very much appreciated. Even if the topic is still five or more chapters away.

**New Poll:** Do you want to read their essays for Professor Greige? If not, you'll only get to read the POV of the one in charge like in this chapter. Leave your opinion in a review or vote in the poll on my profile page.

**Next: **Harry finally gets Sirius' portrait back from his Ritual Magic teacher. And of course Harry using the toys Draco drew. The chapter should be up in May.


	34. Ch 33 Completing BaTs homework Part II

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**___, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes and Quidditch kink.

**Beta:** AnastasiaChambers and Platinum

**AN: **I am really sorry for the long delay of several months. The ones who checked my profile page already know that real life has been and is still very busy. However, I try my best to keep up my usual updating schedule. And do not worry, I will never abandon this story.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 33 – Completing Basic Sexual Magic Homework Part II-~-~-**

**Saturday, 22nd November 1997**

Harry wouldn't deny that he did have a hard time coming up with a way to use the toys he'd at his disposal to the maximum advantage. He thought about the idea of also misusing the blindfold as a gag and tie at least Draco's hands together with another blindfold. However, Harry found it very uncreative to just copy Draco. Especially since Harry had to admit that the session they had on Thursday night had been the most intense one so far and he really wanted to return the favour to Draco with something just as special.

_What should I do?_ Harry wondered not for the first time this Saturday morning as he flew around the Quidditch pitch. _Taking away his sight is a given_, he thought, remembering how being unable to see had played a major part in enhancing the experience for him.

"Harry, watch out" Ron yelled just in time for the brunet to not get fatally hit by a Bludger.

_I really shouldn't think about this during Quidditch practice, _Harry reprimanded himself after the close call. _Maybe I can include Quidditch?_ he wondered, suddenly having gotten inspired. _Focus, Harry! You can think about this more later_, he chided himself and focused all of his concentration on catching the Snitch.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"So, all set up for tonight?" Draco asked as Harry returned from practice.

"Yeah, I've got it all planned out," Harry lied.

"Anything I need to take care off?" the blond asked, curious about what Harry had come up with.

"No, just be in the living room today at seven," Harry answered. "And stay out of the bedroom an hour before that."

"As you wish, Harry," Draco said, giving a mock bow for show and than went on his way to lunch.

_At least I have a __rough __idea now_, Harry thought with relief. _Let's hope that __the __Ritual Magic Room will give me some inspiration __on__ the finer details, _the brunet prayed as he prepared himself a cheese sandwich.

Entering the Ritual Magic Room a minute later, Harry was once again surprised by how similar to the Room of Requirement the Ritual Magic Room was. On one side, Harry spotted a shelf with a wide array of double penetration toys and the wall opposed the door rather resembled a Quidditch exhibition.

_Exactly what I need to get it all planned out,_ Harry thought, starting with inspecting the double penetration toys, picking up some of them for a closer inspection and imaging how he could use them best.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Because Harry finalized his plans after lunch was over, he'd belatedly realized that he needed Draco to wear specific clothing for his plan to work. Therefore, he'd been forced to pick out the cloths he needed from Draco's wardrobe and placed them on Draco's armchair in the living room together with a note saying:

_**~Please only wear this clothing. And no, I didn't forget the briefs. You'll have to go commando for this one~**_

Harry had been very red-faced when he wrote the bit about leaving out the boxer briefs. However, it was either writing a note in which he asked Draco to take the briefs of before they started or Harry in person asking the blond during the play to take them off. So writing the little note seemed like the better alternative, especially since Draco hadn't been there to see his red face.

And now, a minute before seven Harry sat on the bed, still undecided. While he had a detailed plan on how to best use the blindfold and the double penetration toy he'd picked out, his plan didn't include to use the two toys together. Instead he had one scene planned out for the penetration toy and another scene for the blindfold and the little Quidditch extra he wanted to include.

_How to start though? _Harry asked himself for the sixth time in two minutes, playing with the two blindfolds he picked out. Looking at the time, Harry sighed and went to the living room, the blindfolds still in his hands.

"Ready?" Harry asked as he entered the living room where Draco was already waiting for him, sitting in an armchair, having changed into the clothes Harry'd laid out for him.

"Shouldn't you ask if I'm scared?" Draco replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Scared, Malfoy?" Harry asked, his voice full of laughter.

"Of course not," Draco said, getting up from the armchair. "So what do you have planned that involves no boxer shorts?" he asked, curious about the unusual request Harry'd made.

"Wait and see," Harry said joyfully. "For now, you have to pick a blindfold. Left or right?" he asked, hiding the two blindfolds behind his back.

Harry'd found different Quidditch team blindfolds between the other Quidditch things in the Ritual Magic Room. He'd planned to show Draco the Chudley Cannons blindfold as a joke to lighten the atmosphere, before he would put the dark grey Falmouth Falcons blindfold over Draco's eyes. However, he had spontaneously decided to let Draco decide with which scene he would start. If the blond picked the hand with the orange blindfold, then they would start with the blindfold scene, otherwise with the double penetration toy.

"Hmm, left."

"Oh, you get the Chudley Cannons blindfold," Harry said as he brought forward the orange blindfold with the Chudley Cannons emblem.

"Really?" Draco asked.

"You picked the side" Harry just answered, placing the dark grey Falmouth Falcons blindfold on the coffee table and then pulled the orange blindfold over Draco's eyes. "Besides, you'll only see the black inside of it anyway."

Harry took hold of Draco's hand and then carefully led the blinded blond towards the bedroom until they were standing parallel to the long potions table. There, Harry had placed everything he would need for the blindfold-Quidditch scene he'd come up with.

"We're here," he unnecessarily announced.

Draco just smirked in response, asking "Don't tell me you are scared?"

"You wish," Harry answered with a laugh.

From all they ways that Draco had used the tie, the blindfold was the one which had the most prominent effect on him. And as the blond himself had drawn a blindfold, Harry had wanted to give him just as an intense experience. On the Quidditch pitch, he'd thought that he could somehow use the Snitch and especially its fluttering wings to make Draco all crazy and aroused with the enhanced sensitivity of touch the blindfold created.

However, as Harry pursued the Quidditch articles the Ritual Magic Room provided, he'd found a small chest containing miniature Snitch toys. According to the inscription on the lid, the blue Snitches were charmed to find the most sensitive places on a person's skin and would caress them with their wings. The green ones were enchanted to simply fly around all over a person's body. And the red Snitches were programmed to hover around the groin area, stimulating the most sensitive part of a person.

Harry had thought a long while about whether to use the Snitches or not. But in the end, he'd decided to use them, even if they sounded very kinky. They were the perfect way to get back at Draco for all the teasing he'd endured while he'd been all tied up, unable to escape the wandering hands.

The little disadvantage of the Snitches was that they, like real ones, flew around all over the room to seek out as many people as possible to 'attack'. But as Harry only wanted Draco to be '_attacked_' by them, he had to come up with a way to confine them to the blond's body. Thus, asking Draco to wear the harem pants and the wide dress-shirt. Both were wide enough to give the Snitches plenty of room to fly around, but at the same time the tight cuffs of the harem pants and the dress-shirt hindered them from escaping Draco's body.

The Snitches were also the reason why he'd asked Draco to go commando. He wanted them to touch Draco's skin everywhere, so skin-hugging boxer briefs were a no-go.

"Let's see if you were a good or a bad naughty boy," Harry whispered directly into Draco's ear, embracing him from behind, restraining Draco's arms with the movement. Then Harry moved his right hand under the harem pants to check if Draco wore underwear or not.

His fingers trailed down over Draco's hipbone, then down the happy trail, stopping shortly before touching the other's cock, all the way down meeting only skin. "Hmm, Draco," Harry hummed approvingly, "It seems like you were a good, naughty boy," he dirty talked as his index finger trailed imaginary routes through Draco's pubic hair.

"Since you were such a good boy, I'll let you decide the number. Choose something between two and six," Harry said, his finger still drawing circles through Draco's pubic hair.

"Four?" Draco more asked then stated. He had no idea what the number revered to, besides all the whispering into his ear coupled with how close Harry was standing to him was already affecting him.

"Good choice," Harry said, stretching his left hand towards the table where the chest with the Snitches lay. From there, he grabbed one green, two blue and one red Snitch and shoved them one after the other down Draco's harem pants. He laughed, when Draco jumped into the air when the wings of the first Snitch touched him.

"What did you put into my pants?" Draco asked, turning his head around to face Harry, even if he couldn't see the other boy.

"That's for me to know and for you to enjoy," Harry said. "But don't worry they're perfectly safe. Just enjoy how they feel," Harry breathed into his ear. "Why don't we let them move up to your chest too?" he asked conversationally as he opened the strings that kept the harem pants secured to Draco's hips enough to let the Snitches through. Then he moved the dress-shirt over it, enabling the Snitches to fly all over Draco's body.

Through the white dress-shirt, Harry could see how the green Snitch moved out of the grey harem pants and up towards Draco's back and then towards his left elbow from where it moved to the blond's chest.

"Are these Snitches?" Draco asked, his breathing irregular.

"If they were, it would be my task as a Seeker to capture them, don't you think?" Harry asked teasingly as he grabbed a hold of the red Snitch that was giving Draco's groin a massage. "Though, I think that I'll give them some more time to find a good hiding place," he added, letting go of the Snitch he captured.

"Harry," Draco said breathlessly after another minute had passed. The blond barely could stood still from all the simulation he received, taking deep breaths. One of the blue Snitches now torturing his nipples while the second one was moving between his inner tights.

"Yes, Draco?" Harry teased. He really enjoyed how much the Snitches affected Draco. How the blond already resembled a wanton in the throes of passion.

"Please," Draco begged, wiggling in Harry's hold, his breathing irregular mixed with groans.

"Please what, Draco?" he asked. "Please catch them? Or please add more?"

"Take them out please," the blond said, voice husky and his head leaning back against Harry's shoulder. And Harry was sure that the tent in the harem pants was Draco's now erect cock and not the Snitch flying away.

"But only because you're asking so nicely," Harry said, purposefully starting with the green Snitch and taking his sweet time with catching it and accidentally touching Draco's sensitive places during his attempts to catch it. _Oh, yes, I really love to hear all the moaning noises he makes,_ Harry thought, being turned on by the sounds coming from Draco's mouth.

Taking his hand out from the dress-shirt, Harry placed the green Snitch back into the chest and then quickly caught the blue Snitch that was still caressing Draco's nipples. If he didn't end this soon, he himself would be too lost in his lust and arousal to concentrate on Draco.

Even with the two Snitches removed, Draco was still groaning in pleasure, his skin overly sensitive. Sensing that Draco needed something to lean on, Harry let go of the blond's hands and turned him around so that he could lean back on the potions table. Kneeling down in front of Draco, Harry used his right hand to catch the blue Snitch that was flying between Draco's inner thighs and then put his left hand inside the harem pants to take it out and store it in the chest.

Now, only the red Snitch was left and Harry had special plans for it. He moved down Draco's harem pants and caught the Snitch with his right hand before he moved it into his left one. Holding the still fluttering wings of the Snitch against Draco's balls, he took hold of the others cock to give him a handjob, using the blond's pre-cum as a lubricant.

It didn't require much and after not even a minute of stroking, Draco came hard, shuttering so much that he couldn't hold himself up any more and fell down helplessly on the ground.

As the blond slowly came down from his high, Harry couldn't help himself and opened his own pants and stroked his already hard cock, holding the red Snitch that was still in his left hand against his own balls. _Shit, I didn't think that they would be so intense,_ Harry thought, feeling the wings of the Snitch against his own groin for the first time. _The__ir effect__ seemed less __strongly when I held them against my hand,_ he remembered the test he did beforehand.

"Urgh," Harry groaned, careful to stay as quiet as possible as his orgasm overtook him.

"Shit, Harry that was...intense to say the least," Draco said after a short pause when he'd finally calmed down.

"I know," Harry answered, hastily putting his cock back into his pants, before he said, "You can take the blindfold off now."

"You don't have to hide from me," Draco said, pointedly looking at Harry's hands which were stained in cum. "I could hear you perfectly fine."

Harry tried to hide his red face behind his dark locks.

"Is that the one of the Snitches you used?" he asked, taking the red Snitch out of Harry's hand, not bothered by the sperm it was covered with.

"Where did you find it?" Draco asked.

"In our Ritual Magic Room. It also provided me with a wide assortment of double penetration toys," Harry said with a wink.

"How can you still not be sated?" Draco asked. "I'm already totally knackered."

"I'm just eager to try the toy," Harry admitted, his cheeks turning red once again.

"At least one of us is having some fun," Draco said, slowly getting up from the floor.

"As if you hadn't enjoyed what I did to you," Harry replied, taking the hand Draco offered.

"You mean what the Snitches did to me," Draco corrected, "Nevertheless, I'm still too exhausted for another round."

"Poor Draco, already getting old," Harry teased. "How about you have a nice nap and we try out the toy in an hour or two?" he asked.

"Hmm," Draco hummed his agreement as he walked into the bathroom to get cleaned up.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

It was shortly before ten when Harry decided that Draco had slept for long enough and woke up the blond.

"Draco," Harry called, touching the blond's shoulder. "It's time to get up."

"Hmr," was Draco's mumbled answer as he slowly stretched his arms.

"You really are getting old," Harry teased.

"I'm not," Draco denied, springing out of the bed to prove his point.

Harry just laughed. "Then I hope that you won't fall asleep again while you wear the blindfold," Harry said, handing over the Falmouth Falcons blindfold.

"Now, this is what I call a fashionable blindfold," Draco said as he put it over his eyes.

"Glad you approve," Harry said in a mocking voice. "For now, just sit back down on the bed while I get everything ready for you"

"You just want to ogle my sexy body while I can't see you staring," Draco said as he sat down on the bed, purposefully still touching the ground with one foot so that his clothes wouldn't vanish.

"And you didn't stare at me on Thursday?" Harry asked rhetorically from the other side of the bed. "Besides, who said that I want to stare at you? Maybe I just want to give you the best view to stare at me?" Harry teased.

"Because I can see you through the blindfold," Draco mocked.

"If I'd known that you would be so grumpy after waking up, I would have waited for tomorrow," Harry informed Draco, wanting to kiss the pouting lips but resisting.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Draco said in a low voice, turning his body around so that he faced Harry, not thinking about his clothes that vanished with his movement. "It's just that I...I don't know...It's not that I don't trust you, but somehow I feel like I need to get some control over the situation, even if it is through teasing you," Draco admitted.

"Were the Snitches too much?" Harry asked, a bit worried that he'd overdone it.

"It was intense, but still okay," Draco said. "Can I take of the blindfold?" he asked, not wanting to have this conversation when he couldn't look Harry in the eyes.

"Of course," Harry said, sitting down on the bed, facing Draco. The double penetration toy lying forgotten on his pillow.

"I can't pinpoint why I'm a bit on edge right now," Draco began his long explanation, laying back on his elbows. "Maybe it really is because I'm still a bit grumpy from sleeping. Though, if I would have to guess, I think it has more to do with the blindfold making me vulnerable. While I don't mind wearing it, since I really do trust you, I believe that giving away the control twice in one day is a bit too much for me right now to feel completely comfortable," Draco admitted.

"So no more blindfolds for you?" Harry asked, unsure.

"No," Draco denied. "I really liked how excited the blindfold made me earlier. And even now it made me feel exhilarated for what was to come. But somehow it was overshadowed by a feeling of anxiety. Like I needed to claim my authority.

"Argh," Draco groaned out, letting his upper body fall down on the bed. "I really don't know how I can explain how I felt."

"It's okay," Harry said, laying a comforting hand on Draco's shoulder. "Don't work yourself up over it, yeah?"

Draco nodded in answer, still feeling bad about how he felt.

"Maybe it's just like you said," Harry began, "It was simply too much submission for you in one day. According to our Typos Thesis, you're mainly dominant, while I'm mainly submissive. And while I enjoy to take over the control on occasion, I certainly feel more at ease when you're the one in control," Harry admitted, thinking back about how he'd felt as they brewed the Zët Potion.

"So you believe that I just felt a need to take over the control because I feel more comfortable when I'm in charge?" Draco asked, sounding hopeful.

"Yep," Harry said. "You know, I actually wanted to let you take over once I get into position," the brunet admitted, chuckling.

"Really?" Draco asked.

"Yeah. I told you that I feel more comfortable if you're in charge. Beside, our task is to use the toys on each other; not to dominate each other."

"So, what is so special about this toy that has made you so excited to use it?" Draco asked, picking up the forgotten L-shaped double penetration toy from the pillow. Now that they talked and found an explanation why he had felt uneasy, the blond was curious about what Harry'd planned for them.

"Oh...that," Harry stammered, his face turning red. "You see the two dildos. When you touch one of them, the other will change to resemble your cock."

"Interesting," Draco said, taking a hold of the other dildo and watching as it changed it form. "Anything else?"

"You see the little button here?" Harry asked in an excited voice, pointing at the edge of the L, where the dildos connected. "If you press it, the dildos will start moving." he said and then pressed the button. His previous embarrassment totally forgotten.

They both watched for a moment how one of the dildos elongated about two inches as the other shrunk two inches. It worked just like a see-saw.

"So, do you want to try it out now. Or do we wait until tomorrow?" Harry asked.

"You said that you wanted me to be in control?" Draco asked, the toy Harry picked out intrigued him.

"Mhmm," Harry affirmed, having a feeling that he would get to play with the toy tonight.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Draco asked, turning of the toy for now.

"You really are eager," Draco laughed as Harry lay back on his back, his legs spread open.

"Or just horny" Harry said back.

"Yeah?" Draco asked, leaning over Harry to give him a kiss.

"Hmm," Harry hummed into the blond's mouth, letting his hands wander into Draco's hair.

Soon, they were both lost in their own little world where only the other existed, exchanging kisses and caresses. Both boys expressing the love they felt for the other with their lips and hands as they were too afraid to voice what they felt at the moment.

Afraid that admitting their feelings to the other would complicate things between them. Afraid that it would make completing their Sexual Magic homework awkward. And most importantly, afraid of being rejected.

Draco and Harry shared, long sensual kisses, with Harry only half-heartedly fighting Draco for dominance. And when they were too out of breath to keep kissing, they softly called out each other's name as they let their lips wander down towards the other's neck or cheek as they caught their breaths again. And all the while their hands wander into the others hair, explored the upper back and shoulders or just caressed their beloved one's cheek.

As Draco's mouth finally moved below the level of Harry's collarbone, going down to play with Harry's nipples, the brunet's hand moved over the bed in search for something to hold on and made contact with the forgotten double penetration toy.

"Will you cast the lubrication charm?" Harry asked between kisses.

Draco just gave him a questioning look.

"For the penetration toy," Harry elaborated, swatting the blond's arm with the toy.

"Oh, yeah," Draco finally answered. He'd been so lost in Harry, that he'd totally forgotten about the toy.

Without another word, he took Harry's wand from the bedside table, cast the cleaning and lubrication charms and the placed the wand into Harry's hand so that the brunet could repeat the procedure on him.

"Let's see if it is as good as it sounds," Draco said as he quickly spread Harry with his fingers before he slowly inserted one of the dildos into Harry, so that the second dildo was facing the celling. With fascination he watched as the other dildo transformed to resemble Harry's cock. And when Draco wanted to lubricate it, he heard how Harry groaned in pleasure.

"Oh, god. I didn't know that would make you feel what the dildo feels," Harry moaned, throwing his head back.

As to prove the truth behind Harry's statement, Draco moved his thumb in small circling motions over the tip of the dildo that was poking out of Harry's ass. He was rewarded by a horny groan from Harry in answer.

"This is a really interesting toy," Draco commented, as he continued playing with the dildo.

"Stop teasing, and insert the other end," Harry complained.

"So needy," Draco teased but complied with the other's demand and quickly fingered himself, knelt atop of Harry with his knees surrounding the brunet's hips, and then slowly lowered himself on the dildo that resembled Harry's cock.

"This feels weird," Harry stated. "I good kind of weird. Like I'm inside you while you're inside me."

"Hmm," Draco hummed his agreement. Moving slightly so that his weight lay on his left hand, he used his right hand to move it between where their bodies where connected by the double penetration toy and searched for the button that would activate the thrusting motion.

"Shit," they groaned out in unison once the toy was activated. Both would never have believed that they would be able to feel being the top and the bottom at the same time. And to make the sensual overload worse, Draco used his free right hand to grab both of their cocks and frantically fisted them, letting his hand move up and down their shafts with just the right amount of pressure they both enjoyed.

"_Draco,_" Harry groaned out, just as he came, covering Draco's hand as well as their stomachs in his come.

Draco twitched as he not only felt Harry's orgasm on his hand, but also something wet coming out of the dildo that was inside his body, triggering his own release.

"Eerk," Harry squeak when he felt something wet coming out of the dildo that was inside of him. "I so do not want to know what just came out of it," he told the blond. Both of their breath were coming out in laboured gasps.

"Me neither," Draco commented, letting himself fall down next to Harry, the part of the double penetration toy that was inside him plopping out of his body at the movement.

"You know what?" Harry asked rhetorically. "I think that it would be a good idea to read each other's essay."

"It's nice to know that I'm so good in bed that you have time to think about our homework assignment," Draco teased.

"Hey, we were doing our homework assignment," Harry countered, even though he would gladly admit that school work had been the last thing on his mind in the last twenty minutes.

"Smart ass," Draco said as he showed Harry's shoulder playfully. "But I agree with you. We have to write the papers anyway so why not read them. It certainly will help us to understand each other better."

"That's what I thought too," Harry agreed.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Tuesday, 25th November 1997**

"I started to fear that I would never get the portrait back," Harry said as they left the Ritual Magic classroom.

"I was more afraid that our teacher had gone mental," Draco said. "Really, who wants to spend so much time with a portrait? A portrait they're openly flirting with."

"I'm more worried that Sirius seemed more than relieved to finally have gotten away from Immaculé," Harry said, thinking about the exhausted sigh Sirius' portrait had given when he was returned into Harry's hands.

"We can question him about it later," Draco suggested and Harry wholeheartedly agreed.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"So, what did Immaculé want from you?" Harry asked once he enlarged Sirius's portrait back to its original size and had placed it on the couch.

"The nerve of that bimbo," Sirius accused, making both Harry and Draco raise their eyebrows. "You know, at first I thought that she had fallen for my charming good looks, and wanted to know me better. But after two days of her flirting I started to become suspicious," he told his eager listeners.

"She started to become far too interested into the stories involving Snape. So I avoided to mention him at all just to see if my hunch was right. And not even a day had passed without me not mentioning the dungeon bat and she was openly asking about him. Asking me to tell her more stories about Snape's time as a student.

"When I didn't relent, she went as far as begging. Even offering to take off one article of her clothing in exchange for one story I tell her," he told them.

"You're joking," Draco said, Harry to busy with laughing.

"I was named Sirius for a reason," the portrait stated.

"Yeah, that's why you didn't become one of the Marauders," Harry answered.

"Okay, I concede," he said, "she didn't offer to strip in trade for stories about Snape. But she still asked me non-stop about the git," Sirius huffed in announce.

"I'm just happy that I finally got you back. I feared that we went through the Portrait Activation Ritual for nothing," Harry said, relieved to have the portrait of his godfather returned to him.

"Speaking of rituals, have you two already found one for the winter solstice?" Sirius asked and laughed when two red faces greeted him.

"We wanted to find one last weekend, but we had been otherwise occupied," Harry said, remembering the Basic homework he'd handed in today.

"Oh, good," the portrait said. "Humouring Isabelle―Professor Immaculé for you―reminded me that Lily and James had performed a very nice ritual during the winter solstice," Sirius told them. "Maybe you can also perform it?" he asked.

"If you tell us what ritual they performed," Draco said.

"Oh, sorry. They did the Promising Ring Ritual," Sirius informed them. "James told me that it was the best ritual he every did. He even got Lily her personal promising ring just for this occasion. Though I can't still not understand why she had to give her ring to Snape. Their friendship was already over by that time."

"What is a promising ring?" Harry asked, not having heard of it before. "Is it like an engagement ring?"

"Not necessarily," Draco answered. "While it can be a promise of marriage, it can also be a promise of friendship or protection or whatever else you want it to stand for."

"Its meaning depends on how the ring is enchanted during the Ritual. As far as I remember, the stones you choose to use in the ritual determine what the ring stands for," Sirius added what he know about the topic. "By the way, do you still have your promising ring, Draco?"

"Yes, I still have mine."

"Good. Harry's should still be inside the Potter vault," the portrait said.

"Why is it important that you still have your ring?" Harry asked. "If a promise ring can mean so many things, wouldn't it be logical to have more than one so that all of your friends can have one?"

"It's not like that. The promising rings are not just simple rings; they're custom made by goblins. And while the Malfoys have enough money to buy more than one, it just isn't done. A promising ring is meant to be given to the one person one values most in their life. It is a great honour to receive one," Draco explained.

"So why did mum give it to Snape?" Harry wondered out loud.

"If I knew. All she said that she had her reasons. But hey, because she gave hers away, James gave me his," Sirius told them with a big grin on his face.

"What do you think, Harry? Shall we do the Promising Ring Ritual?" Draco asked. He really likes the idea of enchanting his ring, and even more to gift it to Harry.

"Let's take a look at the ritual first. But it certainly sounds interesting enough," Harry answered. The thought that it would be a good way to show the blond how he felt coming to his mind.

"I'm glad to have been of service to you. And now if you excuse me, I have some beauty sleep to catch up on," Sirius said before closing his eyes, starting to snore shortly after.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Next: **Their essays for Professor Greige since the majority of the voters wanted to read it. And after that a time skip to the winter holidays and the Promising Ring Ritual.


	35. Ch 34 Completing BaTs homework Part III

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes and kinks

**AN: **Sorry for the overly long delay. I was moving into a new city and starting my first real job and thus was busy and without internet access for weeks. A longer chapter will come in the (hopefully near) future.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 34 – Completing Basic Sexual Magic Homework Part III -~-~-**

****Tuesday, 25****th November 1997, ****Basic Sexual Magic Classroom****

Professor Angus Greige had to admit that he enjoyed reading the essays his pupils wrote. Not because he was a fan of voyeurism, but because he enjoyed to read how the young people discovered new aspects of themselves.

He could still remember when he was as young and inexperienced as his students. First experiencing how the use of a blindfold could magnify even the simplest caress; how a restraint made you realise how much your hands usually wander over your partner's body. In short, how sex became more than just finding your own release.

_Let's see if Mister Thomas __did already have this realisation, _Professor Greige thought curiously as he picked up the first essay.

Five essays later, he picked up one of the essays he'd been excited to read.

**_**~H. Potter~**_ **

_Now, this will be interesting, _Professor Greige thought. Up to now, the two young men occupying Room Zero hadn't disappointed him with their essays.

_**~I received anal beads as a penetration toy and a tie as a restraint. As a tie can be used in many ways, it was decided to use it as a blindfold, a gag and to bind my arms and legs.**_

_**Personally, I experienced that the use of the ties as a blindfold and shackles made me more sensitive to my partner's touches as well as heighten the overall excitement. Especially not being able to see, made me concentrate more on my other senses.**_

_**The anal beads turned out to be an enjoyable toy. Though, I can't say if this was only due to the heighten sensitivity from the blindfold and the effect of taking me by surprise.**_

_**However, there was a time where I was left alone for a while. At first, I didn't mind. But when I didn't hear or feel anything from my partner after some minutes had passed, I began to feel anxious. **_

_**Trying to make my uneasiness known was hindered by the gag. Previously, it hadn't affected me negatively, but in that situation it made me realise how helpless I really was. To my relief, my partner reacted to my attempts of being noticed and made me calm down again by speaking and then joining me.~**_

_Even the perfect match of Room Zero need to experience their own mistakes and learn from them,_ he thought, writing a short comment at the end of the paper. _At least Mr Malfoy didn't leave the room like a certain someone else..._

_**~My partner drew a blindfold and a double penetration toy. As I already experienced the sense enhancing effect of the blindfold, I wanted my partner to enjoy the blindfold without the negative feelings I had. Thus, I combined the blindfold with Snitches that stimulated my partner's sense of touch with their wings.**_

_**While my partner wore the blindfold, I felt how much power I had over him. However, this power was overshadowed by my desire to make him feel as ecstatic as I had during my turn. So I mainly felt warmth at the trust he showed me by letting me do as I pleased. And taking pleasure in his pleasure.~**_

_This is exactly what I want the one in power to feel,_ Professor Greige thought with a smile on his face. After reading Lavender's essay, he'd feared that he'd done something wrong during class this year.

Draco, on the other hand, had teased Harry about '_taking pleasure in his pleasure_'. Which Harry had countered with a sarcastic, "That's why you didn't remove the gag I wore, just so that you could hear the vocalisation of my pleasure."

_**~Some time later, it was time to use the double penetration toy my partner drew. Here, I also wanted to take advantage of the blindfold's sense enhancing effect. In the end, we had to stop shortly after starting as my partner was to overwhelmed by the situation.~**_

_Now, this is a surprising development. Who would have thought that both of them would encounter problems during their turn of using the toys._

_**~After we talked and tried to figure out the reason behind my partner's uneasiness, we decided to continue without the use of the blindfold, giving my partner more control over the situation. In the end, we both agreed that a double penetration toy had its merits.~**_

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**_**~Draco Malfoy~**_**

__Ah, Mister Potter's partner. Let's see how he experienced the same events,__ Professor Greige thought as started reading Draco's essay.

**__~My partner____'____s drawn ____toys____:____ anal beads + tie__**

**__As the lot didn't give an explicit instruction in which manner of restraint the tie was to be used, I found it necessary to cover all possibilities by using five ties altogether. ____One to tie my partner's hands together, an additional two to tie his ____legs ____to the bed-frame and the remaining two as a makeshift blindfold and gag.__**

**__Being able to freely move my hands over my partners body was very enjoyable. ____T____he blindfold added a ____further____freedom and thus power over my partner. ____The gag, on the other hand, ____suppressed any complains from my partner. However,____ after a while ____it ____annoyed me as I couldn't clearly hear the wanton noises my partner made. Thus, I removed it.~__**

Professor Greige couldn't help but laugh when he read the last part about the gag, unknowingly repeating Harry's reaction when he read the same sentences some days ago. The only difference was that Harry afterwards complained about Draco's use of 'wanton'.

**__~I have to admit that ____at one point my distraction with ____preparing the next step led to my partner calling out for me. ____I reacted by calling out to him and than touching him to ____reassure____ him that I was still with him. In the future, I'll ____better prepare the 'scene'____ to prevent such an event from happening again.~__**

__It is always good to be properly prepared. ____But one still needs to be able to react to the unexpected,__ Professor Greige remembered the advise of his Sexual Magic instructor.

_****~My dr******awn ****toys****:**_** double penetration **____**dildo**____** + blindfold**__

__**Opposed to my partner, my restrain only took away my eyesight and left me otherwise all freedoms I desired. **____**Thus, while I stood still as my partner used Snitches on me, it was my own choice to let him do as he pleased **____**as I could have stopped the whole thing whenever I wanted**____**.**__

__**The blindfold together with the Snitches created a situation where I could only guess what would happen in the next moment, making me concentrate on their every move on my body. **____**All in all, they resulted in an intensive experience **____**which didn't make me feel restrained in any way.**__

__**The next time I wore the a blindfold was in preparation for the use of the double penetration toy. Here, I unexpectedly was overcome by an uneasy feeling **____**which made me act out**____**. **____**When it didn't go away, **____**I and my partner mutually decided to stop.**__

__**We **____**analyse**____**d**____** the reason for my reaction **____**and came to the conclusion that **____**the situation arose from me having given over control to my partner **____**more times than I feel comfortable with in one day. **____**I**____**n retrospect, it could have also been **____**due to the outer circumstances. Namely, **____**just having woken up some minutes before we began the scene.~**__

__Having just woken up could be a possible reason, __Professor Greige mused. __Maybe I should include a lecture about reading your partner's body signals in the general coursework instead of explaining it in some ____of the____ specialisation ____topics____? ____h___e wondered briefly, before he read on._

__**~In the end, we used the double penetration toy without the blindfold **____**while I was the one who had the control over the situation. **____**This way, I came to the conclusion that while a double penetration toy offers a new dimension of sexual experience, **____**it is just too much for an everyday use.~**__

After he wrote nearly anidentical comment from Harry's essay under Draco's, he lay the essay on the done pile and picked up the next one.

__**~Hermione J. Granger~**__

__Ah, Miss Granger,__ he thought with a smile. She really was an interesting young woman. And a mystery too.

The witch had questioned him why the only time he'd personally watched them perform anything sexual with their respective partner was when he graded their performance ofcasting the anal lubrication and cleaning charm.

He and his wife had spent a good half an hour in the classroom discussion whether Miss Granger was a fan of voyeurism or just a very studious girl with a need to prove herself to her teachers. While his wife was adamant that the former was true, he was sure that the latter was correct. In his opinion, the girls reaction to his explanation confirmed his assumption.

He told her that he personally thought that it was best if his students performed the task in privacy and just wrote an essay about their experience. Especially since it made them reflect and really think about what they've done. And if it was a practical skill he needed to grade, then he would try to use an alternative, like the dildo he used for the blowjob exam.

However, as it normally was more difficult to cast both the cleaning and lubrication charm on a human than on an inanimate object, he'd been forced to personally oversee them cast the charm on their partners. And while other instructors didn't care about this difficulty, it was his firm conviction that being able to correctly cast both charms was essential to successfully perform Sexual Magic of any kind that involved anal penetration.

Without the proper lubrication, the experience could not onlyresult in the tearing of skin, but also the penetration itself would be much more challenging if too few lube was used or if it did not reach the deep enough into the rectum. Therefore, he took it very seriously to teach his students how to correctly cast both the anal lubrication and cleaning charm, less a failed attempted mentally scared them of from trying it again.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

****T****hursday****, 2****7****th November 1997, ****Basic Sexual Magic Classroom****

"Here are your essays," Professor Greige announced. "I was glad to see that nearly all of you took this assignment seriously," he said, giving Lavender a pointed look.

"Most of you not only wrote down what they enjoyed, but also what did make them feel insecure or a bit off during your sessions. Since trusting your partner and knowing your partner's comfort zone is very important in Sexual Magic, I want you to use the first half of this class to read my advice at the end of your essay as well as to read your partner's essay and then discussed the points the two of you seem important," he announced the task to his class.

Harry and Draco laughed quietly when they heard today's task.

"There is no reason to laugh," Hermione reprimanded them, turning around to face the boys sitting behind her. "This is a very good idea."

"Ah, but Hermione, dear," Draco began in a sickly sweet voice, leaning forward on his desk, "there is a reason why Harry and I are in Room Zero. We already did this on our own initiative last Sunday."

Harry and Draco both snickered silently when they saw Hermione grab her hair in annoyance, probably frustrated that she hadn't thought about it on her own.

Looking down at their essays, Draco and Harry noticed that they received similar comments from their professor.

_**~In the future, I would advise you to always make sure that your partner knows that you are present if he is restraint in a way which makes him utterly helpless. While it may only take you a minute to fetch or prepare something, for your helpless partner this minutes can feel like an hour. As I believe that the trust level between you and your partner is high, some simple background noises should be enough to let your partner know that you're still there with him.**_

_**For the future, I would further advise you to pre-agree on a signal in case one of you gets overwhelmed when he is bound like Mr Potter had been. An acoustic signal from a small horn which can be placed in the hand would be a possibility.**_

_**I compliment you that you had the wisdom to stop when you felt that the situation became to much for you. While I would have needed to be present to give you a more reliable reason for Mr Malfoy's discomfort, I can only speculate that him just having awoken played a major role in it. For him, the blindfold must have felt like being thrown into cold water while he was still half asleep.~**_

"The acoustic signal is a good idea," Harry commented on the only point they hadn't discussed already.

"Yes," Draco agreed. "Though simply snapping our fingers should be enough. It's not like I plan to be far away from you anytime soon."

"Me neither," Harry answered, his cheeks turning pink when he saw the final comment on his homework that wasn't included on Draco's.

_**~While I welcome your initiative to use other toys to strengthen the effect of the blindfold, I recommend that you abide the homework instructions next time and reserve the extracurricular activities and toys for your free time.~**_

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Next: **The next chapter is called "Christmas preparations" and should be update in November/December. It should be longer than this very short chapter.

**Please tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	36. Ch 35 Christmas preparations-Part I

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**AN: **I was debating with myself if I should update this chapter as it is or wait until I finished part II of the chapter. As you can see, I decided for an update, especially since the last chapter mainly consisted of their homework essays.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 35 – Christmas preparations- Part I -~-~-**

**Saturday, 20th December 1997, Hogwarts Express**

Harry couldn't believe how fast time had flown by. It felt like only a week had passed since his last ride on the Hogwarts Express where he wondered who his Altair partner would turn out to be. Where he and Hermione had defended Draco and his father when Ron accused them non-stop about being dark. The accused blond and Blaise entering their compartment when Ron was leaving. He could also still remember their little talk where they tried to figure out if either of the Slytherins could be their Altair partner.

And now, two and a half months later, he was once again sitting in one of the train's compartments. But unlike last time, he knew that he and Hermione had been partnered with the Draco and Blaise. The shrunken portrait of Sirius returned into his trunk, but it was now successfully activated with the help of his Altair partner. And most surrealistic of all, he'll spend the majority of the Christmas holidays with the Malfoy family instead of the Weasleys.

Harry shook his head at the image of the stoic Lucius Malfoy sitting in his pyjamas in front of a large fireplace, handling out gifts that invaded his mind.

"You're not regretting your decision to stay with me?" Draco asked as he entered Harry's compartment.

"No," Harry immediately denied. "I was just thinking about how much had changed since this year started."

"Hmm," Draco hummed in agreement as he sat down next to Harry, leaning his head back against the seat. "A year ago, I would never have even imagined that Weasley would not forcefully stop you from setting a foot into Malfoy Manor. Especially not after the scene he made when we were announced as partners."

"Trust me, even Snape wouldn't dare to stop me from completing my homework if Hermione is sitting right next to him."

"And here I thought you're coming home with me because you like me and not just because we have another ritual to complete," Draco said, hoping to hear some final reassurance that the brunet liked him as more than a friend. Harry's behaviour in the last weeks had him believe that this was the case, but Draco wanted to hear one more word of reassurance.

"If it was just about the ritual, I would be leaving for the Weasleys on Monday instead of visiting them on Boxing Day," Harry answered.

"That's good to know," Draco said, with a smile on his face, his hopes confirmed. "If you excuse me, I have a round to continue." With that the blond got up from the seat. Being assured that turning his promising ring into something more than just a promise of friendship would be the right thing to do, he closed the compartment door behind him and left Harry to his thoughts.

While Draco had finally decided on what his promising ring would stand for, Harry was still undecided about what he should do with his ring. More than once the brunet had contemplated about the meaning behind his promising ring. However, regardless of the meaning he considered, the promising ring would always be meant for Draco.

_A ring of friendship? Protection? Love? Engagement?__―__No, certainly not engagement!_ Harry dismissed the unwanted thought with a shake of his head. _If I just knew what Draco is turning his ring into,_ he thought, hating that the blond didn't want to tell him what meaning he'd decided on. That Draco could give his ring to someone else than him didn't even cross Harry's mind.

_Hopefully I'll get a precise idea once I hold the ring in my hands_, he hoped. _At least with the Malfoys' prowess in Sexual Magic, they'll have everything I need for the ritual regardless of the meaning I choose,_ he thought, thinking about the different combination of stones he would need for each meaning of the promise ring.

Harry could still remember how he and Draco were sitting together in their living room in early December where they decided the Promising Ring ritual to be their next ritual and Draco raised the topic of where they would be spending the Christmas Holidays.

**Flashback**

**Tuesday, 2nd December 1997, Room Zero**

"It's decided then?" Draco asked for confirmation.

"Yes, we'll do the Promising Ring ritual," Harry affirmed. "While I don't like all aspects of the ritual, the gain certainly outweighs the embaressment."

"You'll be too busy with watching me to even think about being embarrassed," Draco answered.

"To think that my parents did this ritual," Harry groaned.

"You don't know if the ritual for different sex pairings is identical to ours," Draco commented. "Besides, opposed to mine, your parents aren't well-known Sexual Magic experts. Speaking about my parents, they invited you to spend Christmas with us."

"They invited me to celebrate Christmas with them?" Harry asked, disbelievingly.

"Yes," Draco answered in a calm voice. "Since we're doing the ritual on the day of the winter solstice, we either have to stay the whole holidays at Hogwarts to perform it in our Ritual Magic room, or we use the Ritual Magic room in my home. And both my parents and I would love to spend Christmas together with you and to get to know you better," Draco explained.

"Think about it. If we perform the ritual at my home, then we're both free to spend the holidays with our families," Draco advertised. "Besides, it's not like you have to celebrate Christmas with my family if you don't want to. You could stay at Malfoy Manor till Monday so that we can perform the ritual and then you could Floo over to the Weasleys to spend Christmas with them and then come back to Malfoy Manor for our New Year's Eve party," the blond added.

"Don't worry, I would never stop you from celebrating Christmas with your family," Harry answered. "So I'll definitely come home with you. Let me just clarify with Mrs Weasley if they want me to celebrate with them and if they have room for one more and then I'll tell you how long I'll stay."

"I would love if you could spend the whole holidays with me," Draco wanted to say but instead he just offered, "Of course, the want you to spend Christmas with them. And if they are out of beds, you could always Floo back to the Manor for the night. My parents wouldn't mind. We all know how important the Weasleys are for you."

**End Flashback**

_In the end, I'm only spending Boxing Day and the two following days with the Weasleys_, Harry thought. And while he would have liked to spend Christmas Day with the Weasleys, Harry's desire to see Draco's face when he unwrapped the promising ring was too great. And he couldn't deny that he was interested to see how the elder Malfoys celebrated Christmas.

Besides, all of Ron's brothers would be there for Christmas Day, so he would have to Floo back to the Malfoys for the night, which just didn't seem right. With Bill, Fleur and Charlie leaving on Boxing Day, Harry could stay the night at the Burrow together with Hermione who would also only stay the same three days as Harry with the Weasleys.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted when the Trolley witch arrived at his compartment, followed by Ron and Hermione who came back from their Prefect round.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

It was three hours later when the train arrived at King's Cross Station. Following Hermione, Ron and Ginny out of the compartment, he went with them to where the Weasley were waiting.

"It's nice to see you all," Mrs Weasley greeted them. "I hope you had a good journey."

"We did. Thank you, Mrs Weasley," Hermione answered for the group.

"The two of you are Flooing over at ten on Boxing Day?" Mr Weasley asked Harry and Hermione for confirmation.

"Yes," Harry answered. "The Malfoys already agreed to let me use their Floo."

"And I'll Floo over from the Leaky Cauldron," Hermione added. Noticing the time she hastily added, "If you excuse me, I have a train to catch. See you on Monday for a late lunch." Harry, Ron and Ginny nodded their heads in agreement as they waved her off.

"And don't forget to visit our shop," George and Fred reminded Harry.

"Will do," Harry assured them, before he also took his leave and began his search for the Malfoys.

Fortunately for him, Lucius Malfoy was easily to spot in this sea of people with his tall frame and unique hair colour.

"Mr and Mrs Malfoy," Harry greeted Draco's parents.

"Good afternoon, Mr Potter," Narcissa returned warmly while her husband only nodded with his head. "Draco informed us that you two need to visit Gringotts to acquire your promising rings," she stated.

"That's correct," Harry confirmed.

"If you allow me to take your belongings with me to the Manor, my husband will accompany you and Draco to Diagon Alley," she suggested.

Not wanting to drag his trunk with him, Harry agreed to the suggestion and followed Lucius Malfoy through the barrier from where they took a taxi to the Leaky Cauldron and made their way into the Wizarding bank.

After waiting in line for about five minutes, it was finally their turn. "Mr Potter and I wish to go to our respective family vaults," Lucius informed the goblin.

"Of course. If you'll wait for just a moment, I'll get someone to accompany you."

"Good afternoon, Messieurs Malfoy," a goblin greeted a minute later. "Mister Potter, my colleague will see to you shortly," he addressed to Harry.

"That won't be necessary. We both will just take Draco's and Mr Potters' promising ring from the vaults," Lucius intervened. Harry nodded in agreement.

"If you're sure?" the goblin asked, mustering all three wizards sceptically like he wanted to find out who could want to steal from whom.

"Of course," was Lucius haughty reply. Harry just hummed his agreement.

With a shake of his head and a mumble that Harry was sure meant something like "Crazy, foolish wizards are just waiting to be robbed," the goblin indicated them to enter the cart.

Their first stop was the Malfoy vault. The one out of the several Malfoy vaults that was used for storing heirlooms as Draco informed him. Harry decided to wait inside the cart while the Malfoys entered the vault for about two minutes to retrieve Draco's promising ring.

"Potter family vault," the goblin stated when they reached their next stop.

After Harry followed the goblin out of the cart, he asked, "Do you know where in the vault I can find my promising ring?"

"It is the wizards' task to keep track of where they place the possessions in their vault," was the goblins unfriendly and unhelpful answer.

Fortunately, both Draco and Lucius had overheard Harry's question and were able to help him out. "Mr Potter, you can use an altered version of the _Point me_ spell. Just say '_Point Harry James Potter's promising ring_.'"

"Thank you."

Once the vault's door closed behind him, Harry repeated the spell Lucius told him and followed his wand towards a cupboard which was full of jewellery chests, where his wand pointed to a small, red box on one of the upper shelves.

When Harry picked up the box, he noticed that an envelope lied underneath it. Curious, he opened the envelope and looked inside.

_**~Dear Harry,**_

_**I hope that you like the promising ring I picked out for you. Your father wanted your ring to have a stag as the central piece. However, I thought that you deserve something that wasn't a simple copy of your father's promising ring. So while this ring may be simple, it is at least your own individual ring.**_

_**Love,**_

_**Your mum, Lily**_

_**P.S.: While I didn't want your ring to be a copy of mine or your father's, I still couldn't resist to give yours the same inscription my ring holds.~**_

By the time he finished reading the letter, Harry had tears in his eyes. Even without looking at the promising ring, Harry knew that he would love it. Whipping the tears away, Harry put the letter back into the enveloped and placed it inside his jacket pocket.

Tenderly, the brunet opened the simple, red jewellery box. Inside lay a silver ring with a diamond-shaped central piece that held an oval emerald in the middle and three small light blue stones in each corner. The letters H and P were engraved in flourished letters to the left and right of the central piece, surrounding it.

_Beautiful, _was all Harry could think. The ring's design was just right to be worn by either a male or female without looking too simple.

Gingerly, Harry took the ring out of the box to get a better look at the inscription.

_**~Today, tomorrow, always~**_

_Yes, I certainly love this inscription, _Harry thought, a radiant smile on his face as he put the ring back into the box. _It will be perfect for either a ring of friendship or love._

"Have you found your ring?" he heard Draco call from outside the vault.

"Yes. I'll be out in a moment," Harry called back, closing the ring box and also placed it in his jacket pocket.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

It was already past eleven in the evening when Harry lay in his comfy four-poster bed in the guest bedroom directly across from Draco's own room in Malfoy Manor. He knew that he should soon go to sleep to be fit for tomorrow's Promising Ring ritual. However, the brunet couldn't help himself but to re-read his mother's letter for the sixth time and stare at his promising ring.

_Today, tomorrow, always,_ Harry repeated the inscription in his head. "Your friend: Today, tomorrow, always," Harry said out loud to try it out. _It sounds right,_ he thought. Nevertheless, he also tried the alternative. "Love you: Today, tomorrow, always...

"Argh!" he cried out in frustration. _Why have both versions to sound just right in my ears?!_

He had less than a day to decide on the meaning of his promising ring and against his hope, the ring didn't help him one bit in his decision process.

_'Just ask yourself some questions and compare what the answer would be for Draco and Hermione,' _Harry suddenly remembered Neville's advise from weeks ago and did just that and asked himself which of the two versions he would use for Hermione. While he loved his friend like a sister, he would still never consider to give her a ring of (brotherly) love.

_Thank you Neville, _Harry thought towards his friend. He finally decided that his promising ring would become a ring of love.

_What if he doesn't accept it? _the brunet worried, now that his decision was made. _Stop worrying, Harry,_ he reprimanded himself. _Draco will accept the ring, I'm sure, _he reassured himself, thinking back about the night where they tried out the double penetration toy but initially completely forget about it as they caressed each other. _We__ would never have touched each other like that if __h__e didn't __reciprocated__ my__ feelings __to some extent__._

_I better go to sleep no__w__, _Harry decided, forcefully stopping himself from thinking more about Draco's talented mouth and hands and put the promising ring back into its box and laid back down to sleep.

After unsuccessfully trying to fall asleep for the last forty minutes, Harry tried to determine the reason for his discomfort.

_It can't be the bed. It is as comfortable as it can get. Maybe I've become too used to sleeping nude? _he wondered. _It can't be helped,_ he thought as he got out of bed to get off his pyjamas. And just to be sure, Harry fluffed up the pillow once more before he lay down again.

_I give up,_ Harry thought after another half an hour of turning around from one side to the other. Getting out of bed, Harry redressed in his pyjamas and then walked out into the hallway. They had a ritual to perform tomorrow and he really didn't want to fall asleep during it. And the only other reason why he couldn't sleep that he came up with was that Draco wasn't there with him.

He stopped in front of Draco's door, hesitating._I can't believe that I've become so used to his __presence__ that I can't sleep without him next to me __anymore__._ _Is Draco even still awake?_ he wondered before he decided that he didn't care and softly knocked on the door.

"Come in, Harry," he heard Draco call out, laying aside the book he'd been reading.

"How did you know that it was me?" Harry asked.

"Because I can't sleep, so you wouldn't be able to sleep either," was Draco's answer, like it was the most obvious thing in world.

"You shouldn't judge others by your own standards," Harry replied as he walked towards the bed.

"But I'm right, aren't I?" Draco asked and opened the covers, inviting the other to join him in the bed.

Harry didn't answer. He just crawled under the covers and snuggled up into the blond's bare chest, humming in comfort. "You're naked?" he asked when he couldn't feel any pyjama pants.

"I first assumed that the pyjamas were the reason for not being able to sleep," Draco simply stated.

"Me too." Harry mumbled, getting comfortable.

"Merlin," Harry suddenly cursed. He couldn't believe that the soft pyjamas were getting on his nerves, just because they weren't as smooth as Draco's skin. Distancing himself from Draco, he unbuttoned his pyjama shirt and threw it on the floor before he then kicked off his pyjama bottoms, which landed next to the shirt. "I can't believe that I can't sleep with pyjama's any longer."

Draco just laughed. "Poor Harry. What are you going to do when you're sleeping over at the Weasleys?"

"Taking you with me as my personal pillow," Harry said, giving the blond a quick kiss on his cheek. With finally having decided that his promising ring would mean more than just friendship, he felt like he needed to finally express his feelings to the other. And as he still was not courageous enough to voice his feelings out loud, a chaste, quick kiss seemed like the best thing to do instead.

Draco smiled at Harry's comment as the brunet again got comfortable on his chest, wishing Draco a good night.

"Good night, Harry," Draco returned, kissing the top of Harry's head. "You really make a good blanket substitution."

This made Harry smile too. While neither was able to just say "I love you," they both had no problems to understand what the really wanted to say with "pillow" and "blanket."

Thus, with a smile, a mutual understanding of each other's feelings and an assurance that their meaning of the promising ring would be welcomed by the other, they finally fell asleep as the clock in the faraway church struck two.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Promising rings: **I'll update a sketch of both Harry's and Draco's promising ring on my DeviantArt page (same user name) during the next days/weeks. (At the latest with the next chapter.)

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Next: **The next part of the holidays, including the Promising Ring ritual and Christmas shopping. Update probably on the **21st December** to go along with the date in the story.


	37. Ch 36 Christmas Preparations-Part II

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes and kinks

**AN: **As promised, even if it is a day late, the other half of the chapter "Christmas preparations". There'll be a third part that includes the Christmas shopping. **Happy holidays to you all!**

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 36 – Christmas preparations- Part II -~-~-**

**Sunday, 21st December 1997, Malfoy Manor**

"Morning," Harry greeted Draco, raising his head from the blond's chest to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Good _afternoon_," the blond answered, stressing the last word.

"Afternoon?" Harry wondered.

"Yes, it is already ten past twelve," Draco explained with a smile. "But don't worry, my parents weren't expecting us for breakfast anyway."

"Really?" Harry asked, only grudgingly getting up from where he lay on top of Draco's body.

"Yeah, mum said something about letting us sleep in because we have to perform the ritual tonight."

"That's good to know," answered Harry, looking away from Draco, his voice getting softer with every word he spoke while his cheeks turned redder. It was obvious that he was uncomfortable with Draco's parents knowing exactly what he would do with their son tonight.

"Don't be embarrassed, Harry," Draco chided. "Compared to what they are doing, our homework is nothing."

"It's still weird," Harry commented, putting his pyjama pants on. However, he was appeased by the thought that the Malfoys would more likely see today's ritual as a simple act of performing magic than him having sex with their son.

"By the way, why didn't you come to me last night if you couldn't sleep either?" Harry wondered as he slipped his pyjamas shirt over his head.

"Because it is impolite to crawl into a guest's bed," came Draco's answer from somewhere inside his spacious walk-in closet.

"You purebloods and your sense for propriety," Harry said.

"Master Malfoy, Mister Potter," a house-elf interrupted them as he suddenly spoke up from near the door, bowing towards Harry as Draco was out of the elf's line of sight. "Mistress kindly asks you to be in the family dinning room in half an hour."

"We will be there," Draco called from his walk-in closet.

"Mister Potter is staying in Master Draco's room. Temmy shall move Mister Potter's things into Master Draco's room," the elf stated when he saw the state of Draco's bed and made his own conclusion about what they'd been up to, wanting to be of service.

"That won't be necessary, Temmy," a now dressed Draco answered as he joined Harry before the other could say anything.

After the house-elf popped out of the room, Draco turned to face Harry and saw the questioning, slightly hurt look on his face. "If you want to, you can move some of your clothes into my room. However, I thought that you would like to have a room of your own if you are in need of some alone time or just want to escape all the Malfoys here," the blond joked.

"Let me guess, there's a rule about not disturbing a guest in their room?" Harry asked, as he walked out of Draco's room into his guest room.

"Not at all. We're free to knock on your door in the middle of the night and sent house-elves in whenever we want," Draco said joyfully. "It's just impolite to enter the room without the guest's permission."

"I see..." Harry said, his attention concentrated on the contents of his trunk. "Er, what should I wear to lunch?" Harry asked, not having concerned himself with his clothing yesterday as there hadn't been any time to change for dinner when they arrived from Gringotts.

"Just choose something you're comfortable with; my parents won't mind," Draco answered. "But maybe not this sweater in combination with these pants," he added when he saw what Harry'd picked out. "To think that I thought you'd developed some fashion sense," he said as he gave Harry another set of pants to put on.

_So much about wearing whatever I want,_ Harry thought as he took the pants from Draco's hands.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

After lunch, Draco and Harry decided to grab their brooms to fly around the manor. Playing catch, racing each other and just enjoying the feeling of the cold wind against their skin as Draco showed Harry the area where he'd grown up.

"They are perfect for each other, aren't they?" Narcissa asked her husband as they watched the boys flying around each other in circles from the window of their sitting room.

"They seem to make each other happy," Lucius commented in an emotionless voice.

"Oh, Lucius. You can't still be mad at Harry for freeing one of the house-elves," she chided him, having asked Harry that they call each other by their first names during yesterday's dinner. Lucius, of course, had refused to give Harry the same curtsey.

"I'm not," Lucius answered, his voice firm. _Rather, I'm mad at myself that it had come to this, _he thought. He hated how the Dark Lord's diary and latter the Dark Lord himself had turned him into their will-less servant who treated his elves in such a cruel way that an outsider felt the need to free one of them.

"It's getting late," Narcissa said. "If they want to perform the ritual on time, they should start getting ready soon."

"Then why don't you call them in, while I start to prepare our own room?" Lucius asked, already on his way to the Sexual Magic room he and his wife would use tonight.

After casting a Sonorus spell, Narcissa called out of the opened window, "Draco, Harry!" Cancelling the spell, she waited for the boys to fly over.

"Yes, mother?" Draco asked, once they were in hearing range.

"The two of you should get inside if you want to perform the Promising Ritual punctually at eight."

"Thank you," Draco said and he and Harry made their way towards the back entrance.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"Why didn't she tell us that it was already past four?" Draco complained as he led Harry towards the part of the manor where the Sexual Magic rooms were located. It was now just before five and he feared that they wouldn't be able to perform the ritual at the peak of the solstice.

"Come on, three hours are more than enough to get everything ready," Harry said calmly.

"But we still need to picked out all the gemstones," Draco worried.

"Which will take less than ten minutes because they all already sorted and labelled," Harry tried to appease the blond.

"Mum did say something like this yesterday," Draco muttered under his breath.

"She did," Harry confirmed.

"Here we are," Draco announced when they arrived in a light blue painted hallway. "Father said that we can use the second to last room on the right. The gemstones should be in one of the storage rooms on the left side."

"Are all the other rooms on the right Sexual Magic rooms?" Harry asked, curious.

"Yes. Each is designed to fit the needs of a certain branch of Sexual Magic," Draco explained. "But between my birthday and now, I didn't have the time to explore all of the rooms yet."

"Let me guess, you only looked at the Sexual Potions room," Harry asked. With Draco wanting to become a Potions master, it would have been the obvious choice.

"No, I checked out the Sexual Divination room," Draco said in a haughty voice. However, when he saw the look on Harry's face, he couldn't hold back the laughter. "Of course, it was the Potions' room," he corrected his earlier statement, earning himself a slap to the back of his head from Harry for teasing him.

"So, shall we find out if the Ritual Magic room is similar to the one at Hogwarts," Draco asked as he stopped in front of the second to last door.

"Hmm," Harry hummed his agreement and Draco opened the door.

"Nice to know that the room doesn't have to look like a dungeon," Harry commented, when he saw the midnight blue wallpaper, decorated with white ornaments.

"And I like that the floor is made of wood instead of stone," Draco voiced his opinion, hating the cold stone floor of Room Zero's Ritual Magic room.

"And here's the bathroom," Harry announced, having walked to the left of the room, where a white door led to the bathroom area.

"Let's search for the gems and chalk," Draco said as both boys finished their inspecting walk of the Ritual Magic room and bathroom.

"Shall we work our way from the right to the left," Harry asked once they were back outside in the hallway.

"Why not," Draco said, only for the first door to lead to the storage room where whipping benches and St. Andrew's crosses and similar items where stored. "No, this isn't our room," he said, his face turning pale as an image of his mother bound to one of the St. Andrew's crosses invaded his mind.

The next room turned out to store the collection of various sex toys. Starting from small items like blindfolds and handcuffs and ending with smotherboxes and long-range whips.

"I don't think that we'll need anything from here tonight," Harry said as he closed the door. _I wouldn't mind exploring its contents at a later time,_ Harry thought along with Draco.

After taking a bathrobe each from the clothing storage, they finally found the room where gemstones, candles and other ritual items where kept.

"We'll need some pieces of chalk, two candles, matches," Draco listed as he placed the mentioned item into a small basket. "And of course the gems for the meaning we picked out."

"Hmm," Harry hummed, picking out his list of gemstones and grabbing another basket to transport his gems in.

"Let's see," Draco said, looking at his own list,. "I need aquamarine, blue topaz, chalcedony, diopside,..." Draco read out loud and put both a large and small variation of the gem into his basket.

As they were exactly the same stones that were also on his list, Harry just followed Draco through the well stocked shelves of gems and picked up the same gemstones as Draco, not even bothering to check the labels when Draco stopped saying the names of the stones he put into his basket. Harry just grabbed a second pair for himself, enjoying the warm feeling that spread through his body at the thought of them having decided to create the same kind of promising ring.

And so, when Draco put the final jewel, a sapphire, into his basket, Harry also put a small and large sapphire into his.

"Okay, I've everything," the blond announced.

Quickly counting the number of gems in his basket, Harry nodded his head and said, "I have all eight stones I need. Shall we leave?"

"Yes."

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

An hour later, both boys had taken a cleansing bath, dressed in their bathrobes and were now doing the finishing touches to the ritual circle. Harry had already drawn a small infinity symbol on the ground with a larger infinity sign enclosing it, while Draco had written the necessary runes around the smaller infinity symbol. All that was left to do was to place their promising rings into each of the circles of the smaller infinity symbol and then place the stones at their respective places inside both infinity signs.

When Draco took his ring out of its box, Harry held out his hand. "It's beautiful, may I take a closer look?" he asked.

"Of course," Draco said and let the ring fall into Harry's hand.

"I love the design of the dragon," Harry said, following the Chinese dragon's slender body with his finger as he traced the infinity symbol it described. "Are the eyes made of rubies?" he asked.

"No, they are made of alexandrite."

"Ah, okay," Harry said, not having heard about the stone before. "**À toi, pour toujours,***"Harry read the inscription of the ring. "What does it mean?" he asked Draco as he handed the ring back.

"That is for me to know and for you to find out," Draco told Harry as he place the ring in the middle of his circle.

"Mine is much simpler," Harry said as he pulled it out of his bathrobe pocket and handed it to Draco for inspection.

"It may not be as fancy as mine, however its simplicity suits you much better than any overly ornamented ring could...Besides, I really love the inscription: 'Today, tomorrow, always.'"

"Thank you. It was my mother's idea," Harry told the blond. "Though, I can't imagine for the life of me why she would give a ring with such an inscription to Snape."

"You could always ask him," Draco offered.

"And lose ten thousand house points. I think not," Harry answered as he reclaimed his ring to set it down in the middle of his part of the infinity symbol. "Let us put the gems into place," he said, standing up to grab his basket, Draco following suit.

Once all the stones were in their destined positions inside the two infinity symbols, both boys sat down in the middle of their half of the larger infinity circle.

"Ready?" Draco asked, to which Harry nodded his head. "Let's begin then."

"We call to you, Artemis, on this holy night,

to grace us with your sight.

To grant us our plea,

we ask thee," they both began to chant in synchronisation the spell that invoke the Promising Ring ritual.

"The goddess of the moon,

who brings light into darkness,

who covers the night in silver brightness,

we hope for your boon," they continued.

"And even in this longest night,

there will still be a glowing light," they called out as they each lit the candle in front of them.

"Igniting an infinite ring of fire,

which carries my heart's deepest desire."

"By your sake,

the form of a ring it shall take.

The seed of life we offer you in exchange,

for the intent of the rings to change," they finished the spell and about an inch high flames started to rise from the outlines of the two infinity symbols, luckily not burning the wooden floor.

_And now, the hardest part,_ Harry thought as he discarded his bathrobe, Draco copying him.

Hesitantly, Harry brought his right hand to his flat cock, slowly stroking it. He didn't dare to look up, feeling queasy by the knowledge that Draco was sitting right across from him, wanking just like him. This thought prevented Harry from getting into the right mood to fulfil his task.

"Look at me, Harry," Draco commanded, making the brunet raise his head.

When their eyes connected, Harry was caught in the intensity of the other's gaze, unable to look away from the intense stare. "Lean back and just enjoy the show, Harry," Draco said in an enthralling voice, moving his unoccupied left hand to his face to catch Harry's attention.

In lustful fascination, Harry followed the movement of Draco's hand. Watching how the blond's fingers circled the pink and so very kissable lips. Licking his own try lips as the hand sensually moved down Draco's neck, not even noticing that his own cock hardened from the sight in front of him. And as the blond began to tease his nipples, Harry unconsciously began to move his hand up and down his now fully erect arousal.

"Hgnn," Draco moaned, which Harry answered with a groan of his own.

_Shit,_ was all Harry could think, when he saw Draco's hand wandering further down the blond's body to join the right hand in Draco's groin area._ "So hot,"_ he hissed when the blond started to play with his ballsack. _"Hnn, Draco,"_ he moaned, stroking his cock even faster and harder.

"En—joying...the..show?" Draco asked between heavy breaths.

"_Yesssssss!_" Harry moaned, his stomach muscles already contracting in preparation for his impending orgasm.

"_Shit, Draco,_" the brunet called out, followed by the blond's cry of "Harry!" as they both came, letting themselves fall back on the ground.

They both watch in exhausted fascination how the flames from the larger infinity symbol moved towards the centre where it was connected to the smaller infinity sign, the flames increasing in size the closer they moved towards the middle section. And then, with a final roar and hiss, the flames surrounding the small infinity symbol rose towards the celling, feasting on both of their magic, before they vanished.

"We did it," Harry said happily.

"Hmm," Draco just hummed in agreement, still trying to get his strength and breathing back.

Nearly five minutes passed, before either boy was ready to move again.

"You really enjoyed that I was watching you touch yourself," Harry stated, as he picked up his promising ring.

"Not as much as I enjoyed hearing you switch to Parseltongue," Draco answered. "It's such a tell-tale sign for how turned on you are."

"_I'm sure that I c__a__n make you come just by hissing at you,"_ Harry answered, wearing a satisfied look on his face when he saw Draco's cock standing on half-mast.

"What were you saying?" Draco asked challenging.

"Nothing you should worry about," Harry answered, patting the blond's shoulder while he pointedly looked down at Draco's penis. Then he walked over to where he left his clothes to get dressed, feeling smug. _Dad was right. This ritual is really enjoyable, _he thought, licking his lips at the image of Draco touching himself. _That is definitely the most perfect wanking material __in existence__.._

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Promising rings: **You can now find a sketch of Harry's promising ring on my DeviantArt page. Draco's will follow when I find the time to draw it.

**À toi, pour toujours:** French, "forever yours"

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN: **While I researched for gemstones that had meanings of love, friendship, fidelity, commitment and the like, the meaning of the gems vary from sources to sources.

**Next: **The rest of the holidays. Update probably on the **30th/31st December**. But one never knows what the holidays will bring, so the chapter may be belated or cut in half and part of it updated early. Who knows?


	38. Ch 37 Christmas preparations- Part III

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**___, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes and kinks

**AN: **Here is the final part of the chapter "Christmas preparations". Enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 37 – Christmas preparations- Part III -~-~-**

**Monday, 22nd December 1997, Diagon Alley**

The first breakfast Harry ate with the Malfoys was a very silent affair. Harry didn't know if this was the norm and the Malfoys were just not morning persons, or if it was just an after-effect from last night. While the Promising Ring ritual was rather easy, it had taken a large amount of his magic, tiring him out even if he did once again enjoy one of the best sleeps of his life in Draco's arms.

"So, Harry, have you already finished your Christmas shopping?" Narcissa suddenly interrupted the previous silence, once she finished her second cup of English Breakfast tea.

"Nearly," Harry answered after swallowing the remainder of his jam and toast. "I still have to find something for Mrs Weasley." _And your family,_ he silently added.

"Maybe you can buy her Lachesis' newest knitting set," she suggested. "While it is a bit expensive, I'm sure that she'll love it."

While Harry didn't like that Narcissa's words implied that the set would be too expensive for Mrs Weasley to be it herself, Harry still thought that it was a great idea. After all the Weasley jumpers he received over the last years, this would be the ideal thank you gift. Besides, if they weren't something that Mrs Weasley would have the spare money to buy, he at least would not need to worry about her already possession the knitting set.

"It sounds good," Harry told Narcissa with a nod of his head. "Where can I buy it?" he asked sheepishly, after a moment of contemplation.

"The shop is only two doors away from Ollivanders. You will recognise it at their yarn and scissors symbol."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, Harry," Narcissa answered him with a kind smile.

After that, light chatter could be heard at the breakfast table, mainly talking about the presents they still needed to buy and even Harry was able to make a suggestion or two for acquaintances of the Malfoys. _Who would have thought that hearing Aunt Petunia fret about what to give to the business associates of Vernon could be helpful?_ Harry thought with a chuckle as he went upstairs to get ready for his outing to Diagon Alley.

However, before Harry could leave the manor to Flew with Draco to the Leaky Cauldron, Lucius Malfoy spoke up to him, "Mr Potter, may I ask you to refrain yourself from giving any of our house-elves any Christmas presents, especially in the form of old, stinking socks."

"Don't worry Mr Malfoy, I've reserved all the smelling socks for Professor Dumbledore and Dobby," he answered, receiving a nearly unnoticeable upturn of Lucius' lips in return

_It seems like Mr Malfoy is finally warming up to me,_ Harry thought with a smile as he Flooed off. The words of warning that sounded nearly like a joke were definitely better than the silence he met before.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Harry successfully brought Lachesis' knitting set for Mrs Weasley for the respectable sum of thirteen Galleons. He found this a bit overpriced for some pieces of wood. _But what do I know about knitting tools?_ he thought with a shrug as he made his way to the twins' joke shop.

"Oh, Harry, how can you not spend the holidays with us?!" Fred accused him as soon as he entered Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. At least, Harry believed that it was Fred.

"I mean, I understand that Malfoy looks hot and all," George interjected, as he joined his twin.

"But it won't be us much fun as it will be at our place," Fred argued.

"I'm sure that seeing Malfoy senior opening presents in his pyjamas will be an entertaining sight to see," George said.

"But this still isn't an excuse to miss our mum's Christmas dinner," Fred continued.

"Though, the Malfoys will certainly serve a rich table," George said.

"Non house-elf-made plum pudding can be as good as mum's," the Fred argued.

"Hey, don't ridicule the cooking skills of Hogwarts' house-elves!" George complained.

Obviously the twins had decided that one of them would blame the Malfoys for steeling Harry, while the other would protect Harry's decision to spend the majority of the holidays with Draco and his family.

Fearing that their dialogue would continue for much longer, Harry tried to stopped them. "As long as I still get my traditional Weasley jumper, I'll be happy. Besides, I'll come and visit you on Boxing Day, if you've already forgotten."

"Still," Fred and George said together.

"You both know that with your brothers coming, there won't be room for me. Besides, I don't mind celebrating with the Malfoys," Harry told them, a happy smile on his face as he thought about Draco opening his gift.

"Okay, okay, we'll stop pestering you about it," George said, happy to see that Harry was happy to spend Christmas with the Malfoys.

"But only if you promised to give Mr Malfoy this little gift," Fred added, fishing out an innocently looking, small, in gold and silver wrapped parcel from one of his robe pockets.

"We created it with him in our mind," George said.

Harry only looked warily at it. "What does it do?" he asked, in favour of taking the parcel from Fred's outstretched hand.

"Nothing that would ruin the relationship with your father-in-law," Fred said.

"He isn't..." Harry began to protest. But Fred just cut him off, laying a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Don't worry. It isn't one of our prank products," Fred placated Harry, dragging him towards the back-room of the shop. "We are currently developing a new line of products that adjust to the user's mood," he explained once they were away from listening ears.

"We got the idea from one of those Muggle rings that are supposed change colours based on their wearer's mood," George told Harry. "So we thought that we would try to make a real Mood Ring and some other things."

"Like this little thing here," Fred said, holding out the gold and silver gift once again for Harry to take, which he finally did this time.

"And what does this one do?" Harry asked. "It isn't some kind of jewellery, is it?"

"No. It is something far more practical and useful," Fred said.

"But we won't tell you more, less we ruin the surprise," George told Harry as he shoved him out of the back-room.

"And it really isn't a prank?" Harry had to asked once again.

"It isn't, Harry," they assured him.

"What isn't a prank?" Draco's voice suddenly asked next from Harry.

"My present for your father?" Harry more asked than said.

"Oh, what have you gotten him?" Draco asked, curious as they made their way out of the twins' shop.

"This?" Harry said in an unsure voice, showing Draco the small wrapped parcel.

"And what is this?" he asked, holding the door open for Harry.

"I have no idea," Harry honestly answered as he put the package away. "But maybe you can help me find something saver for him and your mother before we meet my friends at the Leaky?" Harry asked, trying to copy Ginny's puppy dog eyes look.

"Sure," Draco said and led Harry to one of the accessory shops his mother liked.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"Man, I'm exhausted," Ron said when he let himself fall down in the chair opposed from Harry in the Leaky Cauldron, his bags falling to the floor with a loud thud.

"It's just a little Christmas shopping," Harry said.

"You try spending nearly two hours at Flourish and Blotts to find just the right book for Hermione," Ron said.

"You could always just give her a voucher," Harry answered, taking a sip from his Butterbeer.

"It will even save you from getting hit with the book if she shouldn't like it," Draco said, having come back from the rest rooms and reclaimed his place next to Harry.

"Like she needs a book too injure anyone," Ron answered, only now noticing the second mug of Butterbeer on the table that belonged to Draco.

"Yes, I can still remember the yellow canaries of hers or the one time she slapped you," Harry said, looking first at Ron and then at Draco.

"I'm telling you," Ron said, grabbing his mug out of Butterbeer from the bartender's hand, "she's scary!" Underlining it with a toast and a big mouthful of Butterbeer.

"To our brilliant but scary, Hermione," Harry toasted, using the exact same words Ron'd used back in first year.

"What have I done to deserve a toasting?" Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow, taking the seat next to Harry.

"Just being your beautiful self," Ron answered.

"Yeah?" she asked, sceptically. But before she could say more, Luna and Ginny arrived at their table, sitting down on either side of Ron.

_Why, oh why, have I __to __always meet Lovegood in the underwear section of the __clothing__ shop where we're talking about Harry's boxers?_ Draco asked himself, when Luna took the seat across from him and winked at him.

Really, Draco had just entered Twilfitt and Tatting's in search for a new hat for his mother, for which he needed to walk through the underwear department when he once again saw Luna Lovegood holding up men's underwear. However, unlike the last time, today she had the most ridiculous underwear imaginable in her hands.

In her right hand, she was holding up a set of g-strings which had a stocking attached to the front, which resembled a candy cane, where the penis was supposed to be placed in. In her left hand, she held a somewhat tamer set of red boxers, where also a kind of stocking was attached. This time it was in a triangular shaped so that it resembled one of the Muggle's Santa Clause hats, white pompon and all.

_Don't see me, _Draco pleaded in his head, picking up speed. _Too late,_ he thought when Luna called out, waving him over with her right hand and thus the set of g-strings.

"I'm so happy to see you," she greeted him. "Maybe you can help me decide which one I should give Harry for Christmas?" she asked, holding up both underwear at his eye level for closer inspection.

"How about neither?" he said, taking a step back to get away from the offending pieces of clothing, if they even could be called that.

"But I really need to give Harry new underwear," she said, confusing Draco further.

_Maybe she really was mad?_ he wondered.

"The Nargles have developed a special licking for Harry's underwear," she explained, her voice serious. "And I can't let Harry walk around without any, can I?"

_O__kay__‒__y,_ Draco thought, sceptically. "Maybe you should trick the Nargles into believing that the underwear doesn't belong to Harry," he suggested just to be nice to Harry's friend for Harry's sake.

"That was why I was considering these," she said, once again holding up the crazy underwear.

"How about stitching someone else's name on a more simple pair of briefs?" Draco said, pointing at an advertisement three stands away.

"Embroider your underwear, 1 Galleon, up to three words" Luna read the advertisement out loud. "That's a good idea," she said, nodding her head. "Thank you, Draco," she said, letting the underwear in her hand fall back into the stand they came from.

After taking a final look at Luna who was now inspecting much more wearable underwear, Draco's eyes landed on Luna's discarded g-string. _Maybe this candy cane isn't for Harry, but it makes a good joke gift for Blaise,_ he thought as he picked up the ridiculous red and white stripped thing, before finally going to the women's section to search for a new hat for his mother.

"Draco, Draco," Harry called out, finally resolving to give the blond a light shove. "Draco?"

"Yes?" he asked.

"Ron asked if you wanted to join me at the Weasleys for Boxing Day," Harry said.

"Thank you," Draco thank Ron bewildered, instinctively replying with the manners that had been trilled into him from his early childhood. He couldn't believe that Ron had asked him to go to his house, during Christmas no less. "However, I need to decline. I already promised to see Blaise that day," he declined the offer, happy that he already had made other planes once Harry's holiday schedule had been worked out.

"Thank, Merlin," Ron said, taking a big gulp from his Butterbeer and nearly choking on it when Ginny elbowed him.

"That isn't nice, Ron," his sister chided him. "You can't invite him and then loudly voice how happy you are that he won't be coming."

"But I only invited him out of courtesy to Harry," Ron defended himself.

"You're hopeless," Hermione and Ginny said in unison.

"But you still love me," Ron answered, getting up to get a new mug of Butterbeer. The other occupants of the table just shook their head.

"At least some things don't change," Harry said with a smile, happy that his friends got along well enough with Draco.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Next: **Christmas, maybe even including the visit to the Weasleys and New Year. It depends how long the chapter will become.


	39. Ch 38-Merry X-mas and a Happy New I

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**___, "_Parseltongue_"

**Warning: **sexual themes and kinks

**AN: **I'm deeply sorry for the delay. Work and family life was super busy and stressful since the New Year and it doesn't look like it will calm down any time soon... :(

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 38 – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Part I-~-~-**

**Wednesday, 24th December 1997, Malfoy Manor**

It was the morning of Christmas Eve and Harry had nothing better to do than to sit in the library of Malfoy Manor and work on his Potions homework. Every so often, he would look out of the window in the hope to see that the downpour outside had magically stopped. But even after an hour, the rain hadn't lessened and his Potions essay was still far from being completed.

_If it would at least snow, I could go out and fly instead of __sitting here and hopelessly try to finish Snape's damned essay! _he thought in frustration, when his latest look out of the window still revealed no change in the weather.

"Argh," Harry groaned in annoyance, throwing his quill down on the table and then buried his head in his hands.

"Is everything alright, Harry?" a soft female voice inquired.

"Just frustrated that I can't go out for a fly," Harry answered, looking up at a concerned Narcissa who was slowly approaching him from the entrance of the library.

"I hope you don't feel so uncomfortable in our home that you want to escape?" she asked, placing her right hand on the table.

"Oh, no," Harry soothed her worries. "I'm just stuck with my Potions essay and could need a fly to work out all of my frustrations." _And it would calm my nerves about giving Draco the promising ring __tomorrow__, _he added silently in his own head.

"Then you hopefully won't mind a little chat?" Narcissa asked as she sat down opposites Harry.

"I'm all for distractions," Harry answered with a big smile, closing the Potions book beside him to use it as an armrest.

"I'm sure you noticed that my husband has kept his distance from you," she stated, Harry nodded in affirmation. While Draco's father had not been unfriendly to him, he certainly hadn't sought out Harry's company or talked to him if it wasn't necessary. Though, in the last few days, the Malfoy patriarch had seem to warm up to him, if only slightly.

"I want you to know that he is not staying away from you because he dislikes you. I believe he actually likes you very much," she said. The last part sounding more like an afterthought to herself than a comment Harry was meant to hear. "It's just that his time under the Dark Lord's Imperious curse still troubles him," she explained the reason behind her husband's behaviour towards Harry.

"He really hates what it made him do, especially to you. And while I do not think that you blame him for the things he did while under the Dark Lord's control, Lucius fears that you still connect his face with these actions. So he tries to stay away from you until you had time to slowly acclimatise to his presence and to know that he will not harm you or your friends."

"I understand," Harry told Narcissa with a smile, laying a comforting hand atop hers. Hearing her explanation reminded him about how Draco had tried his best to make Harry feel as comfortable as possible when they started with the Altair electives. Obviously Draco had inherited this selfless, caring behaviour from his father.

"Please tell your husband that I do not mind his presence," Harry told Narcissa with a quick squeeze to her hand in his.

"I will," she answered, squeezing his hand in return as she gave him a soft smile as their hands parted.

"I do not want to assume too much," she gingerly began after a moment of silence between them, "but I believe that you plan to give Draco your promising ring?"

"Erm...yes," Harry stammered, embarrassed that he was so easily to see through.

Narcissa just gave him a soft smile.

"I...er...wanted to give it to him as a Christmas present," Harry elaborated after a short pause.

Narcissa's smile got wider.

"You are aware that Draco likes the Japanese culture?" she asked.

"Yes," Harry nodded in agreement, relieved that they were leaving the trail of questions about his promising ring.

"Then you also know that Christmas has a different meaning in Japan than in Britain?"

"No," Harry answered. _Wasn't Christmas the same everywhere?_ he wondered.

"What comes closest to our Christmas celebrations is the Japanese New Year. Christmas Eve, on the other hand, is celebrated by the younger people like a second Valentine's Day," Narcissa explained, making Harry wonder why she was telling him this, especially after asking about what he planned to do with his promising ring.

Did she know that he felt more than just friendship for her son and wanted to help him find the right time to give it to him? Or did she know that Draco had something planned for tonight and wanted him to know the meaning behind the gesture? Harry didn't know her well enough to guess her true intention.

Either way, he thanked her for the insightful information, "That's good to know."

Now that her task was fulfilled, Narcissa got up with a smile. "If you have problems with your essay, I'm sure Draco will gladly help you out once he finishes his lesson with Lucius."

"Yeah," Harry answered, sending a resigned look at the Potions book. With the new information Narcissa had just given him, he'd be too busy to come up with the right words to give Draco his promising ring tonight. _Tonight! _Harry was both thrilled and frightened by how close he was to confess his feelings to the blond.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Dinner this evening was a quiet affair. If Narcissa and Lucius didn't knew that the boys both planned to confess their feelings to each other after dinner was over, they would have feared that something was wrong with the wonderful Christmas Eve meal the elves had prepared for them. Both boys were barley eating anything on their plates, merely pushing the vegetables around and drawing figures in their mashed potatoes and forcing the occasional piece of meat down their throat. The promising rings in their trouser pockets weighting heavily on their minds.

Before Lucius could call them out on their behaviour and ask if someone died, Narcissa gave her husband's leg a quick kick under the table to silence him. While she didn't like the mourning mood that had settled over the dinner table at such a joyful Christmas Eve she didn't want them to become even more nervous, less they lost the courage to confess tonight.

Not even five minutes later, Narcissa had to once again kick her husband under the table, turning the beginning of Lucius laughter into a faked coughing fit. She too had noticed how Draco and Harry had started to look at the other whenever the other was looking at their dinner plate. However, unlike her husband she had enough self-control to not laugh at the ongoing eye-tennis match they boys were holding in front of them.

"Are you alright?" Draco asked his father, just as Harry asked Narcissa, "May we eat our desserts upstairs?"

"I'm alright, Draco," Lucius answered his son, and not wanting to receive another kick from his wife, he said to Harry, "Of course, you can eat your desserts in Draco's rooms. I'll ask the elves to prepare it for you."

"Thank you," Harry said, as he got up from his seat and held out a waiting hand to Draco.

"Since the boys are otherwise occupied, why don't we start on Mrs Vane's necklace?" Lucius asked his wife once the boys were out of earshot.

Narcissa gave him a look that said 'I know what you are trying to do'. But in the end, she gave her consent to perform the first part of enchanting Mrs Vane's necklace tonight, even if Lucius had only suggested it to get back at her for the kicking during dinner.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"That's..." Draco said when he opened the door to his room and saw about a dozen lit candles.

What Draco didn't know was that Harry had already asked Temmy, the house-elf, to decorate Draco's room with candles to give it a more romantic feeling and replaced the small table in front of Draco's couch with a larger one together with some wine and tea. That they now also had a plate of tiramisu to share was an added bonus in Harry's book.

And while he would have preferred to come up with something more special, Harry had to say that with the short time he'd to plan the whole thing, he and Temmy'd done a good job at creating a romantic but not overly soppy atmosphere inside Draco's room.

"It's..." the blond began again as he finally stepped inside, but he was once again unable to finish his sentence. He wanted to say that it was perfect, but all of Harry's thoughtful preparations rendered him speechless and made his heart flutter in anticipation. This was the perfect set-up to confess someone's romantic feelings. But before Draco could even compose a full sentence in his head to say to Harry, the other boy had already took hold of his hand and silently let him to the couch.

"Draco," the brunet began, both boys shifting on the couch so that they could look directly at the other. "I'd planned to wait until tomorrow, but a talk with your mother this morning made me think that today would be better suited for this," Harry informed Draco, still holding onto one of the blond's hands, his thumb caressing Draco's hand while his free hand nervously played with the end of his sweater.

Draco just sat there, looking at Harry with hopeful eyes, and waiting for the other boy to continue. He could only hope that Harry's last sentence referred to his love of the Japanese culture.

Taking a deep, calming breath, Harry remembered how Draco called him '_a good blanket __substitution_' and drew strength from that comment to go on with his confession. "I'm sure you noticed all of this," he said, moving his free hand to indicate the room's changed decoration. "And I'm also sure that you noticed that we chose the same gemstones for our promising rings. And I'm more than sure that you know how Christmas Eve is celebrated in Japan..." Here Harry trailed off to let the meaning sink in and to take another calming breath, steeling his resolve.

"While we had our fights when we were younger, I'm happy that being Altair partners gave us the opportunity to get to know each other better. I don't believe that I could have found anyone else that understands me like you do and sees me for who I really am. Someone, who knows that I do not always want or can be the strong one in the relationship. Someone, who cares for simple Harry and not the bloody Boy Who Lived.

"What I want to say is. What I want to ask is," Harry began again. "Will you become more than just my Altair partner and friend? Will you do me the honour and accept my promising ring and what it entails?" Harry asked, not taking his eyes away from Draco's soft grey ones as he pulled out his promising ring from his trouser pocket.

"Of course, I accept. Nothing would make me happier, Harry," Draco answered as he leaned forward to give Harry a possessive kiss, full of love and acceptance. And both would swear that this was the best and shortest kiss of their life even though they only stopped kissing when the need for air became too prominent.

With a goofy smile on his face, Harry raised Draco's hand to eye-level and held the forgotten his promising ring in front of Draco's ring finger, waiting for the other's permission to put it on. Seeing the blond smile at him, Harry finally put the ring where it belonged and placed a kiss on top of the new ring on the blond's finger. Harry in turn was rewarded with another passionate kiss from Draco.

As the kiss got more intensive and their moans of pleasure got louder, Draco used his body weight to press Harry down on the couch, laying his body atop of the brunet's, never stopping their kiss.

"Can I call you my boyfriend now?" Draco asked, his lips millimetres away from Harry's.

"Yesss," Harry answered, still out of breath.

"Good! And just to be clear, I love you, Harry," Draco told Harry, the first to use the L-word.

"I love you too, Draco" Harry responded immediately as he leaned his head up to get another kiss from the blond. This time it was soft and sweet.

"Harry," Draco said softly, getting off the couch and on his knees in front of Harry. "I too am grateful that the Altair electives gave me the chance to get to know the real you while letting the past stay in the past. You do not know how much it means to me that you welcomed me into your life and shared your private thoughts and feeling. That you trusted me enough to share them with me and trust me to take care of you when you need a helping hand, or just let me lead when we perform Sexual Magic," Draco added the last part with a humorous voice.

"Therefore, will you also accept my promise of friendship, protection and love?" he asked, serious again and holding out a small box, which held his promising ring on a soft velvet pillow.

"Nothing would make me happier," Harry repeated the blond's earlier words.

Taking Harry's hand in his own, Draco took his time as he put the promising ring on Harry's ring finger.

When Draco got up from the floor, he noticed the untouched tiramisu on the table. "How about a celebratory dessert?" he asked.

And so, the rest of the evening was spent by enjoying the delicious tiramisu, drinking wine, cuddling, whispering sweet things into each other's ears and just enjoying the fact that they could finally call the other their boyfriend and show their feelings openly. And most of all, exploiting the fact that they now could kiss each other whenever and wherever they wanted to.

"You do not know how happy I am to finally call you my boyfriend," Draco said as they prepared for bed some hours latter.

"Maybe you can show me?" Harry asked teasingly as he removed the last item of clothing and got under the bed covers.

Not a minute later, Draco joined him in the bed. And just like when they were supposed to try out the toys from their Basic Sexual Magic lesson, they got lost in touching, kissing and caressing each other's body. They enjoyed to let their hands and mouths wander over soft skin and hard muscles. They loved to hear the other's moans of pleasure and even more the soft whispers of "I love you". And while both of them orgasmed that night with the name of their beloved falling from their lips, they restricted their carnal activities to simple frottage and hand job.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Thursday, 25th December 1997**

"Merry Christmas," Harry greeted Draco the next morning with a kiss.

"Merry Christmas indeed," Draco answered when they finally stopped kissing. "I would suggest that we go down and see what presents we received, but I already have everything I want." Draco underlined his words with kissing his promising ring on Harry's hand.

"Me too," the brunet agreed.

"So you do not want a blow job tonight?" the blond teased, raising his hips up so that their cocks brushed against each other.

"Only if I can return the favour," was Harry's answer, as he got out of the bed.

"We'll see," Draco said, as he chased after Harry, encircling the slightly younger boy in his arms, wanting to kiss his cheek, but ending up kissing Harry's soft lips instead when the brunet moved his head to face Draco. "For now, let's enjoy opening the presents from our friends and family."

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

If neither of the elder Malfoys had not already known yesterday that the boys planned to confess to each other, it would have been more than obvious to them now. They would just have needed to take a step into their living room to see their son and Harry sitting together on one of the love seats, cuddled together under a blanket. Draco's half-empty cup of hot chocolate stood on a side-table, while Harry was holding his cup in his left hand, having just taken a small sip from the hot drink.

"I see that you already started unpacking without us," Lucius said as he and Narcissa approached the boys, making Harry almost drop his mug.

While Narcissa and Lucius assumed that Harry's reaction and red face was the result of Harry being spooked by suddenly hearing Lucius' voice, it were the words themselves that gave Harry a near heart attack. Because unbeknown to Draco's parents, their son had just started to unbutton Harry's dress shirt under the cover of the blanket when they walked in on them.

"We didn't open any presents," Draco said adamantly, retreating his hand from Harry's shirt.

"My eyes tell me otherwise," Lucius answered, pointedly looking at Harry's hand in front of the brunet's stomach, as he and Narcissa sat down on a love seat of their own.

"It isn't what it looks like," Draco retorted, moving his hands above the blanket.

"Oh, really?" the Malfoy patriarch asked, raising a blond eyebrow, making both boys sweat. "To me the situation looks quite biunique. Don't you agree, Narcissa?"

"Yes, there's no mistaking the situation," she agreed. Ignoring the "Uhm" and "Err" that Draco and Harry were mumbling under their breaths, she finally relieved the boys from their worries when she said, "That's certainly Draco's promising ring on Harry's hand. And Draco seems to also wear Harry's ring."

Harry and Draco let out a relieved sigh in unison, which in turn made the blond's parents suspicious. But since it was Christmas Day, they both decided to not ask any further questions and just let it slide.

"Yes, Harry is wearing my promising ring and I'm wearing his," Draco affirmed, proudly holding out his left hand to his parents so that they could marvel at the promising ring. "We're now officially together." The love and joy in the blond's voice was obvious.

"Congratulations, I'm happy for the two of you," Narcissa said, giving both boys a warm hug and a kiss to the cheek.

Lucius accompanied his own congratulation with a hug to Draco and a pat to Harry's shoulder. He even went so far as to say, "Welcome to the family," leaving Harry speechless.

"So, shall we open the presents?" Draco asked, once his parents had sat down again.

"Be my guest," Lucius said, pointing with his hand to the mountain of presents under the Christmas tree.

And so Harry and the Malfoys began to open their gifts from family and friends. Besides the unspectacular presents they received, like the bottle of whisky and the new hairpin Harry gave the Malfoys, there were also some more exciting presents. Out of them, the gift that the twins had forced Harry to give to Lucius was the first to be opened.

"This one is actually from the Weasley twins," Harry informed Lucius. "While they assured me that it isn't one of their pranks, the only thing I know about it is that it is sensitive to the user's mood and that they created it with you in their mind."

"How reassuring," Lucius commented, sarcastically. Carefully he opened the gold and silver wrapped parcel. "A coffee mug." After eyeing it critically and casting a spell to check for pranks―you could never be sure when it came from the owners of joke shop―Lucius finally pulled the mug out of the parcel.

On the white mug, the word 'WARY' was printed in red bolt letters, with 'needs sugar' printed below in a smaller italic print. "According to this manual, the mug will add sugar and milk to the drink depending on my current mood," Lucius read the manual that lay beneath the mug to the others. "And it will also say something about what I feel."

While Harry found this useful, he wondered why the twins created it especially for Lucius Malfoy. Didn't people always take their coffee and tea in exactly the same way?

"This is perfect for father," Draco told Harry. "Unlike a normal human being, he drinks his coffee black on one day, only to add five spoons of sugar the next."

"I'm not that fickle," Lucius argued.

"No, you're worse. Remember Tuesday morning when you drank your first cup black and the second had more milk and sugar than coffee in it?" Narcissa asked, silencing her husband.

_Nice to know that even Lucius Malfoy is human,_ Harry thought in amusement as he watched the exchanged between the married couple.

Before Lucius could sulk any longer, the attention of the room was focused on Harry's next present. And the Potter luck made Harry chose to open the package from Luna.

"A shawl?" Harry wondered out loud as nicely folded silk cloth was revealed underneath the wrapping paper. But to Harry's great embarrassment, the shawl turned out to be briefs when he lifted them up for everyone in the room to see.

_S__he didn't!_ was all Draco could think, when he saw that Luna had gone through with her choice of Christmas gift.

"Would you be kind enough to explain to us, why Ms Lovegood sent you underwear with Draco's name one it?" Lucius Malfoy asked, barely stopping his amusement from showing on his face.

This made Harry turn the briefs around so that he too could see the embroidery on the back.

_**~ Draco Malfoy's Property~**_

_Okayyyy?_ was all Harry could think when he saw the words Luna had chosen.

With Draco's shocked expression turning into a smirk, the blond loudly whispered into Harry's ear, "It seems even Luna knows that you are mine now," underlying his statement with a possessive kiss, not giving a care that his parents were sitting on the other love seat.

"Ahem," Lucius cleared his throat to get the young men's attention. "I'm waiting."

"Uhm...eh..." Harry stammered, having no idea why Luna had giving him such a gift.

"She brought it because she feared that Nargles would steal Harry's underwear," Draco spoke up to relive Harry from his futile attempt to find an explanation.

"Nargles?" his mother asked.

"They are creatures Luna believes exist," Harry explained, happy that Draco somehow knew Luna's way of thinking.

"And she obviously believes that with my name on them, the Nargles won't steal it from Harry," Draco added, purposefully leaving out that he'd been the one to suggest another name to be stitched on them.

After opening some more unspectacular presents, Narcissa handed Harry the present from her and her husband. "Please do not be offended by our gift, Harry," she said in warning. "We do not mean to insult you with them. We just thought that you could benefit from them."

Now Harry was very curious what the Malfoys had gotten him. Promising them to keep an open mind, Harry slowly opened the present as Draco gave him a reassuring squeeze. Based on their weight and size, Harry guessed that the Malfoys had given him two books. Unwrapping them he read the title of the first book.

_**~Wizarding Laws for Uprising Politicians~ **_

The first half of the title made the book sound like a very boring read, while the second half suggested that the Malfoys wanted him to go into politics. Not something Harry wanted for himself. The title of the second book wasn't any better.

_**~Wizarding Etiquette for Muggleborns~**_

_Did the Malfoys find his table manners to be lacking?_ was one of the first thoughts Harry had. But before he could think any more about it, Narcissa spoke up.

"As I said, we do not mean to offend or insult you, but as a public figure who didn't grow up in this world, we thought that you should know what people expect of you and what you do not have to tolerate from them," she explained their intention.

"If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to come to either of us," Lucius offered. "And if you don't plan a political career, I suggest you only read the chapters _'Handling the Press'_ and '_How to Keep Your __Private Life Private__'_ from the book of '_Wizarding Law'_," Lucius added.

"Thank you," Harry said, sincerely, his eyes all teary. Now that he knew why they gave them the books, he was grateful for them and happy that they thought about such a thing. Not even the Weasleys had bother to explain the Wizarding traditions to him. Especially the mentioned chapter '_Handling the Press_' sounded very promising in Harry's ears. Maybe he could finally handle Skeeter without Hermione's help?

"Now mine," Draco said, giving Harry a large box. "I even promise that it doesn't contain any briefs."

Instead of briefs, Harry was greeted by the sight of a grey Muggle suit set, with a green and black tie.

"Since you are here for New Year's Eve, I thought that it would only be fair if I gave you something to wear for our traditional New Year's Eve party that father holds for his Muggle business associates," Draco informed Harry.

"Thanks," Harry said with a kiss to Draco's cheek, happy to hear that only Muggles would attend, who wouldn't stare at him because he was Harry bloody Potter.

"I have to admit that I didn't get you much, as I planned the promising ring to be the main gift. But I hope that you'll still like this," Harry told Draco as he handed over a very small package.

"I love it," Draco said, when Harry's gift turned out to be a thin book on Potions that he'd wanted for months. "Your the best," Draco announced and then gave Harry a big hug and an even bigger kiss.

"Merry Christmas," was all Harry could return to Draco's enthusiastic thanks.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**AN: **Please tell me how you liked their confessions. Pretty please?

**Next: **Harry visits the Weasley family. How will he manage to sleep without his Draco pillow? It will be updated after I finish writing a new chapter for my other 2 ongoing stories.


	40. Ch 38-Merry X-mas and a Happy New II

**Disclaimer: **see prologue

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**___, "_Parseltongue_"

**AN:** I hope you all enjoy the nice spring weather. :) The sketch of Draco's promising ring still does not come out right. So it may be a while before I can post a passable sketch on my DeviantArt page.

* * *

><p><strong>-~-~- Altair -~-~-<strong>

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 39 – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Part II-~-~-**

**26th December 1997, Burrow**

If celebrating Christmas with the Malfoys can be compared with enjoying the sight of the falling snow as you are making snow angles, then Christmas with the Weasleys was like a full-out snowball fight.

And so after enjoying a relaxed, serene and calm Christmas Day with Draco and his parents, Harry had not even taken more than three step from the Floo when he was already enclosed by the loud chaos of the Burrow.

"If this isn't our long lost Harry," one of the twins said, placing his arm around Harry's shoulder.

"Your presence was sorely missed yesterday," Fred added, claiming Harry's other shoulder.

"And the day before," George continued, placing his body's weight on Harry.

"I didn't miss you at all," Harry answered in good humour, freeing his shoulders from their clutches.

"And it is obvious why," George commented, holding onto Harry's left hand, inspecting the promising ring.

"You finally made it official," Fred stated, making Harry smile like the soppy fool in love he was when he voiced his confirmation.

"The new, fitting clothes must have done the trick," George said to his brother.

"I think it has more to do with his enchanting green, and thanks to_ us_, spectacles-free eyes," Fred voiced his opinion.

"Nah, it is definitely the clothes and the fit, Quidditch-honed body," George argued, both twins giving Harry's ass a slap.

"Hey," Harry complained, half-heartedly.

"You're both wrong," Luna's dreamy voice announced from the doorway. "It's the sex," she stated in a dry, matter-of-fact tone as she walked over to their little group.

"What about the good, old loving personality?" Harry asked.

"Good kisser," Fred answered.

"Common interest?" the brunet tried again.

"Sex," the twins and Luna answered in unison.

"I give up," Harry announced in resignation.

"Jokes aside," George said in a serious voice, "we're happy that you are happy with Malfoy."

"Yes," Fred agreed, patting Harry's shoulder.

"Speaking about Malfoy, what did his father say about our little gift?" George asked, leaning with his elbow on Harry's shoulder.

"Based on the hum that slipped through this morning, I would say that he liked it very much."

"That's good to hear," Fred said, turning to his brother he added, "Give it a week or two and he'll be ready to agree to our business proposal."

"By the way," Luna began, "I hope that you liked the underwear I gave you."

Harry choked on his own spit. He could not believe that Luna could ask such a question with a completely innocent smile on her face.

"What did I hear about underwear?" Ron asked as he and Hermione finally came down from Ron's room.

"Nothing you want to know about," Harry answered as he walked over to his two best friends, happy to finally get away from the twins, who were closely listening to everything Luna told them about the underwear she gave him.

As the three walked up the stairs, Harry heard the twins exclaim excitedly, "Draco Malfoy's Property!" and cringed. He feared that news of Luna's gift would make it to the dinning table.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

One the three friends were sitting in Ron's room, Harry told them, "Draco and I are now a couple."

"Congratulations! It was about time that you two manned up and confessed," Hermione said.

"Yeah, took you two long enough to finally make it official," Ron said with a nudge of his shoulder.

Harry could not describe how happy their easy acceptance of his and Draco's relationship made him. "Thank you, guys."

The next three hours were spent with exchanging stories of their Christmas holidays, joking around or just enjoying the sandwiches Mrs Weasley had prepared for them. And while Harry greatly enjoyed the company of his best friends, he missed Draco.

_I'm not even away from him for four hours and I already miss him_, the brunet thought ruefully, unconsciously playing with his promising ring. Separating just two days after confessing their mutual love certainly wasn't a good idea.

"Harry, is this a promising ring you're wearing?" Hermione asked excitedly, bringing him back to the present.

Stopping his hand movement, he proudly told her that her assumption was correct and that it was Draco's promising ring. Somehow he'd forgotten to mention the ring when he informed them of his new relationship status.

"It's beautiful," Hermione exclaimed. "Did you also give him yours?" she asked.

"Yes," Harry answered. "We actually chose the same meaning for our rings," he elaborated with a dreamy smile, once again turning the ring on his finger. "Though I still do not know why the colour of the stone changed from red to green."

"He put a spell on it," was Ron's _'Duh, we're wizards'_ answer.

"Hmm," Hermione said deep in thoughts, "Do you know what kind of stone it is?"

"He said that it is an alexandrite," Harry answered while he looked at the currently green stone-eye of the dragon.

"Of course," she exclaimed. "Alexandrite is a stone whose colour changes depending on the type of light. In sunlight, it has a green colour, but in candle light it appears red. It has something to do with the stone absorping the yellow light, so only the green and red lights are reflected. Because candle light mainly consists of yellow and red light, the alexandrite appears red, whereas in daylight the green light is more intensive than the red part, so the stone looks green to us," Hermione tried to explain the physics behind the alexandrite effect to her friends.

"I do not understand what you're talking about, but let's not tell Dad about it, less he wants to know more about this fascinating Muggle stone," Ron stated decidedly. His friends nodding in agreement.

"So, what meaning did you choose?" Hermione asked.

"Ehm…" Harry began, not knowing how much he should say. His friends already knew about his relationship with the blond, having been one of the first thing he told them even thought they'd already suspected that he and Draco were a couple. However, Harry felt the desire to keep the nature of the promising ring a secret. In his eyes, the knowledge of the exact meaning of their promising ring was a private secret between the two of them. Something that made their self-enchanted promising rings even more special.

"It's not an engagement ring, is it?" Ron asked worried.

"No," he answered with a chuckle. "It is a ring of friendship and love," he finally said, feeling that saying this much would not weaken the value of their promising rings, especially since there were at least three dozen different possibilities for 'friendship and love' promising rings.

"What does your promising ring look like?" Ron asked.

After describing the design of his own promising ring to his friends' satisfaction, the topic changed to how Draco's parents had reacted to the news of he and Draco being together.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

Dinner showed that Harry's earlier fear of Luna's present making the round was not unfounded.

"Oh, Harry, dear take a seat," Mrs Weasley said as she shoved the brunet to an empty chair. Once he had sat down she started to fill his plate with mashed potatoes, telling him, "I really cannot thank you enough for your Christmas present. I really love the Lachesis' knitting set, even if it is too much." By the end of her speech, Harry had a more than plentiful amount of mashed potatoes on his plate.

"You're welcome," Harry answered with a kind smile. "Though I have to admit that it was not completely selfless. I expect another sweater next Christmas," he added with a wink which made Mrs Weasley smile with happiness.

"Make it two," Fred barged in.

"Yes, Mum. You can't forget to make one for Draco too," George agreed.

"After exchanging promising rings they're as good as married now," Fred said. By the lack of the other's reaction to the twins' statements, it was clear to Harry that they already knew that he and Draco were now together.

"Or better yet, three," his twin added. "Mr Malfoy would surely look dashing in one of your sweaters." This made the whole table laugh. The image of the haughty Lucius Malfoy wearing one of Molly's sweaters was just too hilarious.

"And don't forget to attach a tag on Harry's next sweater that states 'Draco Malfoy's property'!"

"It will go along well with the new underwear he got," George finished.

"Yes, it really was a genial idea, Luna," Fred said to the blonde girl sitting next to him.

"I just bought them to stop the Nargles from steeling Harry's briefs," she explained to the room like is was a basic fact of life.

"I fear, my dear," Fred answered, "that it will not keep Malfoy from taking them off, though."

"The ass of his is too irresistible," George added.

"Can we not talk about Malfoy's ass during dinner?" Ron asked, already busy with eating the food on his plate.

"But Ronniekins," Fred butted in, "we're talking about Harry's ass, not Malfoy's. Though I have to admit that his ass is hot too."

"If you had listened to what we were saying instead of stuffing your mouth, you would have known this," George added.

"You're not talking about anyone's ass at my table," Mrs Weasley finally interfered. "And congratulation, Harry. It is not everyday that you receive a promising ring...And what a beautiful ring it is," she added after she took a closer look at the ring, while filling Harry's plate with a double portion of peas.

"Really, Mum," Bill spoke up in a teasing voice from next to Harry, "with how much you're putting on his plate, one would think that you believe that the Malfoys starved him." This again made the whole table chuckle and Harry was once again reminded why he loved the Weasley family. They really were a very special and loving family and Harry was ever so grateful that they saw him as one of their own, even though he now was also a part of the Malfoy family.

"Of course, I do not believe this, dear," Mrs Weasley said to Harry, her kind voice getting weaker with every word she spoke as she took a closer look at the food she piled on Harry's plate.

"What do you mean by promising ring?" Fleur asked. "Is it another name for engagement ring?"

"Sorry, I forgot that you do not have such rings in France," Bill said, apologeticly. "The British promising ring is a variation of the Irish Claddagh ring, whose meaning depends on the enchantment. While it can function as a promising ring, it mostly stands for love, loyalty, protection, friendship or a mix of the four."

"What meaning did you choose?" Fleur asked Harry.

"Friendship and love," he answered. "Which reminds me, can you tell me what the inscription means? I believe it's French," Harry asked her, taking the ring of so that Fleur could take a look at the inscription.

"À toi, pour toujours," she read out loud. "It means 'forever yours'" she informed him. She admired the ring for some more moments before she gave it back to him. "I still like my ring better," she loudly whispered to her husband, giving him a kiss.

"I'm sure you'll change your mind once we tell you how promising rings are enchanted," Fred said provocatively.

"We'll even help you to enchant your wedding ring," George offered with a grin.

"Trust us, you won't regret it," Fred added, leaning forward in his seat to get closer to her.

"You won't enchant anything with my wife," Bill told them sternly.

After making a sad face, the twins turned to each other and said together, "Hermione." Their voice being somewhere in between flirty, excited and the typical 'of course'-tone.

"Don't even start," Hermione told them, laughing.

"Now your hurting us," George said.

"And it's Christmas. You're supposed to be all friendly and nice, you know?" his twin added.

"Besides, we are sure that there are some things that can only be performed with twins," they said in unison.

_Now we got her,_ the twins thought when they saw how Hermione's eyes lit up with a mix excitement and curiosity. That Hermione did not answer did not worry them. Rather they interpreted her silence as 'I'll come back to your offer soon.'

This were the last words that were spoken during dinner that were in any way related to Sexual Magic, not that they would have been able to go into detail with a still underaged Ginny at the table. The rest of the dinner was spent with Hermione, Luna and Fleur telling the others how Christmas was celebrated in their homes.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

"Next year, I'll ask Fleur to bring a bûche de Noël," Ron said as he and Harry got ready for bed. Now, where most of Ron's brothers had returned to their own homes again, the so lively Burrow felt empty.

"Or you could have gone back to France with them," Harry added, not surprised that his best friend was thinking about food.

"Last time I checked, _you__—_and not I—are a favourite of the Delacour family, Oh-great-saviour-of-Gabriel," Ron teased his friend with a mocking bow.

"And here I thought you just feared to make an utter fool out of yourself in front of Fleur's beautiful Veela relatives."

"That too," Ron said as he turned away from his friend as he got comfortable in his bed.

In the meantime, Harry was studying the vial of Sleeping Draught in his hand. He could still feel the warmth in his heart that he felt when Draco had given him the satin bag with the two vials of Sleeping Draught inside it.

"Since you can't sleep without your pillow anymore, I thought that I would help you out," Draco had told him when he handed over the bag.

"Thank you," Harry said, grateful, and still hardly able to believe at the same time, that such a caring and thoughtful person was returning his love. "You really are the best boyfriend a boy can wish for."

"My pleasure. Though, I have to warn you that you can't take them for more than five days in a row, less you get addicted to the potion. So no staying away from me for more than a week."

"I wouldn't even think of it, my Draco pillow," Harry whispered before he leaned in to give the blond a kiss.

"I love you too," Draco answered once they separated. "But please refrain from calling me that in public."

"Okay," Harry agreed, than smiling mischievously he added, "I'll only call you my Draco pillow when we're out of the public eye, like at the breakfast table. I'm sure your parents won't mind the nickname."

"Harry," Draco blustered, even though he was fairly sure that the brunet would not dare to say such a thing in his parents' presence.

"Though I can't decide if I should call you Puffskein or Snuggle Bug in public," Harry spoke on.

"Depends if you want me to call you Wonder Boy or Doodle Bug in return," Draco answered. "Though I would prefer the good old Harry and Draco."

"_Mr Perfect _and _Love of my life_ also sound good to me," Harry countered.

"If you would care to speak English, I could give you my thoughts on them."

"Maybe an other day, my beloved," Harry whispered in Draco's ear, making them both smile.

"Now this is something I can agree on, my love."

_To the wonderful Draco_, Harry toasted as he swallowed his vial of Sleeping Draught, sure that tonight's dreams would be dominated by Draco.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**28th December 1997, Burrow**

"Bye, Hermione," Harry said when it was their time to leave the Burrow two days later.

"Until New Year Eve, Harry," she answered, hugging the brunet.

"Why again are you going to Zabini?" Ron asked.

"Because we have a homework assignment to complete and because I promised to be his date for the annual Malfoy New Year's Eve party," she explained before she grabbed a handful of Floo poweder and spoke clearly, "Zabini Residence," Flooing to Blaise to complete their 'homework'.

"I can't believe that after only three months I now imagine a bed with lot's of pillows instead of a table full of books when she says 'homework'," Ron said to Harry. "Where has the old, innocent Hermione gone?"

"She became an attractive woman, Ronniekins," the twins answered.

"So Harry, do you also have some 'homework assignments' to complete?" the Fred asked and both twins raised their eyebrows in question.

"No," Harry answered but after a pause added with agroan, "except for Snape's dammed essay."

"I'm sure that Malfoy will write it for you if you give him the right initiative," George said.

"Yeah, I'm sure he cannot say 'No' to your pretty ass, Harry," Fred added.

"Argh, can we not talk about it while I'm standing next to you," Ron snapped, making the other three boys laugh.

"Poor Ronniekins, he is not grown up enough to listen to adult's talks," Fred said.

"I'm sure we can find some leftovers of the Ageing potion we brewed for the Tri-wizard tournament for you," George said.

"No thanks."

"See you in the new year," Harry said to the Weasley brothers, still laughing, before he Flooed back to Malfoy manor where Draco was already impatiently awaiting the return of his 'Harry blanket'.

**~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~- **

**Next: **The Malfoy New Year Party, after which approximately only the last 1/3 of the story is left. Updated around June/July, as I have to finish the final chapter of the first arc of my other story Verbuar first.


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